Thai Army, known to Ukrainian readers primarily for being world's sole operator of 49 Ukrainian Oplot tanks, has another no less interesting news — Thai Army is returning its M42 Duster self-propelled anti-aircraft systems to service, based on M41 light tank chassis, as corresponding photos from social media show.
M42 Duster was serially produced in 1950s, but despite respectable age, in theory it can still be used for countering strike UAVs.
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More specifically, M42 Duster was serially produced from 1951 through 1959, with nearly 3,700 units manufactured overall. Main armament of such self-propelled systems is two 40mm M2A1 automatic guns (licensed copy of Bofors L60) with combined 580-round ammunition load, auxiliary armament is 7.62mm machine gun in rear section with 1,760-round ammunition load.
In open sources it is declared M42 Duster firing range at aerial targets was up to 2,500 meters, at ground targets (such as light armored vehicles or enemy infantry, which was relevant in Vietnam conditions) — up to 5,000 meters.
Interesting nuance lies in chassis — M41 light tank became base for M42 Duster, which back in 1960s was retired from U.S. Army ground forces service. However, for example, Thai Army still has 24 tanks of indicated type in service.
Meaning despite this involving nearly 70-year-old production equipment, Thai Army in theory still has corresponding base for maintaining these machines' operability.
M42 Duster was replaced in U.S. Army in 1970s by more modern M163 self-propelled AA systems (six-barrel Vulcan gun on M113 chassis). Thai Army had at minimum 30 M42 Duster self-propelled AA systems. How many of these machines will be returned to service now remains open question.
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