India agrees to sell Akash missiles to Vietnam

According to Hindustantimes on February 15, India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has agreed to sell Akash air defense missiles to Vietnam.

India agrees to sell

"India is currently conducting many negotiations on the supply of Akash missiles with a series of customers, including Vietnam. This is a step in line with the policy of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aiming to establish India's position as an arms exporter," Mr. S Christopher - Chairman of DRDO told the media on February 15.

Before publicly giving Vietnam the green light on the Akash deal, the Times of India reported that the Indian Ministry of Defense and the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense were holding a series of talks on the sale of the Akash medium-range surface-to-air missile system and the BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile system.

Akash missile system.

This is not the first time that foreign press has mentioned the issue of Vietnam and India negotiating contracts to purchase Akash supersonic surface-to-air missiles and BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, along with a number of other weapons.

In early February 2017, the Times of India published an article on the topic of India and Vietnam negotiating the purchase of India's Akash surface-to-air missiles, and also said that negotiating on Akash was relatively easy because 96% of this missile system was produced by India.

Is Akash needed in Vietnam?

On January 17, the Russian website topwar.ru published a remarkable article about Vietnam's air defense systems, naming several types of missiles that Vietnam is said to possess (however, there has been no official confirmation from the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense).

Vietnam's missile defense system is at a fairly high level. The missile defense divisions are equipped with both time-tested old systems, as well as the latest generation of Russian missile defense complexes, including 2 S-300PMU-2 Favorit battalions and 6 Buk-M2E battalions.

Topwar.ru also revealed that Vietnam also possesses a number of Russian Pantsir-S1 short-range air defense missile systems, which are used to provide fire support for Buk and Favorit systems, and to protect important targets from cruise missile attacks.

In addition, Vietnam has also purchased short/medium-range Spyder air defense missile systems from Israel, whose features are superior to India's Akash missiles.

Therefore, Vietnam does not necessarily need to purchase the Akash air defense systems from India. According to some experts, this money can be used to buy 1-2 more S-300 battalions and invest in other areas, such as airborne early warning aircraft - a very important factor to protect the country's airspace from a distance...

In addition to Vietnam's existing multi-layered air defense network, the power and reliability of the Akash system are still unanswered questions. Therefore, purchasing Indian air defense missiles is not necessary for Vietnam's air defense force at this time.

Clip of India testing Akash:

According to Baodatviet