Vietnam to US: US weapons sales and the needs of Vietnam - Vietnamese State media reported

On March 9th, 2018, The Vietnamese state media Tuổi Trẻ repoted that during US president Obama's official visit to Vietnam on May 23, 2016, announced that the United States had decided to lift the ban on the sale of weapons to Vietnam.

The decision to lift the ban is based on our desire to perfect a long-term process of normalizing relations with Vietnam, he said.

What does Vietnam need ?

Ben Moores, a consultant at IHS Janes, notes that Vietnam's defense budget is small but fast growing.

He said that Vietnam needed a lot of military equipments such as tanks, armored vehicles, attack helicopters, tactical helicopters, long-range radar, sea patrol aircraft,...


US Apache combat tactical helicopter

Anthony Nelson, senior fellow at the US-ASEAN Business Council, said that US defense companies could take advantage of advanced technology to offer military equipment for use in the sea, such as command and control equipment. , coastal area awareness technology and communications.

Lockheed Martin's P-3 Orion patrol aircraft, for example, can provide command and control support for submarines and Raytheon radar systems used at sea.

Defense News website assesses Vietnam's efforts to improve the capability of air defense and security. Therefore, Vietnam was interested in F-16 fighters and refurbished P-3C Orion aircraft equipped with torpedoes under the Pentagon's EDA program.

In addition, Vietnam is interested in unarmed unmanned aerial vehicles for intelligence, surveillance and maritime surveillance.

The United States has recently decided to sell Boeing-Insitu's ScanEagle Maritime unmanned aerial vehicle to Vietnam.

In May 2017, the United States handed over to the Vietnam Coast Guard six Steel Shark Defiant 75 patrol boats built in the United States with US $ 18 million in aid.

Vietnam diversifies its arms supply

Franz-Stefan Gady, an analyst at The Diplomat (Japan), said that if Vietnam increased its arms purchases, its military capabilities would not rise sharply for two reasons.

First, the necessary support infrastructure, such as the US aircraft maintenance facility, must be established. Then there is the training of pilots, ground crews, technicians for aircraft and new weapons, so American technicians must come to Vietnam.

This activity requires a multi-year commitment from the US.

He said that the process of increasing Vietnam's purchase of military equipment depends on the level of training Vietnamese pilots to use the new American military equipment and the ability of the Vietnamese air force to integrate the weapons. America's new weapons in the military that inherited the Russian and Soviet weapons.

According to Franz-Stefan Gady, Russia continues to be Vietnam's most important long-term partner in military cooperation. Vietnam has purchased six Kilo submarines, some anti-ship and ship-to-ground missiles attack.

Vietnam has upgraded its defense system with Russian long-range coastal missile defense and surface-to-air missiles in 2011 and 2012, and upgraded its coastal monitoring radar.

Vietnam is exploiting many Su-30MK2V fighter jets from Russia equipped with anti-ship missiles. Vietnam is also interested in Sukhoi Su-35S multi-role aircraft suitable for marine patrol.

Vietnam's Su-30MK2V

According to Franz-Stefan Gady, Russian military equipment provides Vietnam more effective than US arms and less demanding conditions as the US requires. Vietnam also has experience of handling Russian weapons through years of war.

US Defense News website reported on the Singapore Airshow from 6th to 11th of February 2018 in Singapore, a State Department official explained the United States continues to encourage Vietnam to buy equipment of The USA.

According to Euan Graham of the Lowy Institute in Australia, although part of US technology is still too complex and expensive for Vietnam, we are still on the verge of becoming an important customer of US defense companies...

At Singapore Airshow, Orlando Carvalho, vice president of the Lockheed Martin Group, said: "If the Vietnamese government decides to really move forward in a more serious way in our portfolio, we are happy to negotiate".

Sputnik News (Russia) reported that Vietnam is one of the largest buyers of Russian weapons in the world, but recently Vietnam has paid more attention to other arms exporters such as India, Israel and the US. Vietnam wishes to diversify its supply of weapons.

Vietnam studies how to buy US weapons

US Pacific Command reports that Vietnam needs to improve its submarine force, protect its airspace at sea, combat maritime warfare, increase regional awareness at sea, early warning and system C4ISR (command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance).

According to reports, the United States can support and coordinate programs to provide US military equipment expansion to Vietnam.

However, in February 2018, a Vietnamese Foreign Ministry official said that Vietnam is still studying two ways to buy US weapons, including the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program and the Sales of US Direct Commercial Sale (DCS) by the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Department of Commerce.

Kim Luc reported via Tuổi Trẻ.