The invincible "twin" of the Vietnam Air Force

In the future, if the main position belongs to Su-30SME and the backbone role is reserved for JAS-39C/D, it can be said that the Vietnam Air Force will rise to become the number 1 force in the region.

The Vietnam Air Force is currently considered to be among the top in Southeast Asia. We have a large fleet of Su-27/30 heavy fighters with outstanding features, along with variants of the Su-22, although older, but still very formidable.

In the near future, it is highly likely that Vietnam will purchase the export variant of the Su-30SM, the Su-30SME, to strengthen its strength, because we have sent pilots to train on the Indian Su-30MKI - the design prototype of the Su-30SM/SME.

In addition, Mr. Viktor Kuznetsov - General Director of Aviaprom also said: "Su-30 aircraft manufactured by Irkutsk Corporation will be sold to India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Angola".

Su-30SME model on display at the Singapore Airshow 2016.

Putting the facts together, it is 99% certain that the next fighter jet purchase contract Vietnam signs with Russia will have the "main actor" being the Su-30SME.

Because the Su-30SME uses entirely domestic components produced by Russia, its stability and reliability will be much higher than the Indian Su-30MKI variant or the Su-30MKM for Malaysia, which are "implanted" with many foreign devices.

In addition, the main components that make up the strength of this fighter such as the N011M BARS radar or the AL-31FP 2-way thrust vector control engine are still retained, making the overall combat capability extremely impressive.

If the Vietnam Air Force is supplemented with 2 Su-30SME regiments combined with the 3 existing Su-30MK2 regiments, the air defense identification zone that is being illegally established in the East Sea will be completely ineffective.

However, another issue that needs to be considered is that by the time Vietnam receives enough Su-30s, the Su-22s will also reach retirement age. Continuing to replace the Su-22s with Su-30/35s would not be reasonable, because this heavy fighter line has very high operating costs.

Looking at South Korea, this powerful country also only maintains a fleet of 60 F-15Ks as its main force, while the backbone of its air force is still 200 KF-16s.

Therefore, Vietnam really needs an advanced, economical light fighter to protect its airspace and support air-to-sea combat when necessary.

JAS-39 Gripen fighter.

Among the candidates, the JAS-39C/D Gripen is emerging as the optimal choice. In May 2015, Reuters reported that Vietnam had contacts with the Swedish Saab Group to evaluate this fighter jet.

Although the initial cost is a bit high (up to 70 million USD), it can operate up to 10,000 flight hours (compared to 3,000 hours of Su-30) and only costs 4,700 USD per hour of operation, JAS-39 is especially suitable for countries with limited defense budgets.

Furthermore, the JAS-39 is also famous for its high flexibility combined with extremely advanced avionics. During the exercise with the Chinese Air Force, Thailand's JAS-39C/D proved its superiority by completely overwhelming the J-11.

In addition, if choosing JAS-39, Vietnam also has the opportunity to buy Meteor - the world's number 1 beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile today. Then the superiority of JAS-39 when facing J-10/11 is unquestionable.

The prospect of Su-30SME and JAS-39C/D appearing together in Vietnam is very high.

With the "twin" pair Su-30SME - JAS-39C/D, the Vietnam Air Force not only protects the airspace over the mainland well but also controls the airspace extending to the Truong Sa archipelago.

At that time, in addition to the number 1 position in ASEAN, we will rise to become a major force in the Asia-Pacific region. This is a very bright but also very realistic prospect./.

According to tintuc.vn