With domestic goods, Vietnam will not need Spear mortars

After Elbit Systems sold Spear self-propelled mortars to Thailand, there were some predictions that Vietnam would be the next customer.

The 120mm Spear self-propelled mortar, manufactured by Israel's Elbit Systems Defense Industry Group, is considered to have many outstanding advantages compared to competitors in the same segment manufactured by other military powers.

The system uses a light wheeled armored vehicle chassis (usually the Humvee). This 120 mm mortar has very little recoil (only 9.07 tons compared to 27.2 tons of the Cardom mortar of the same caliber mounted on the American-made Stryker vehicle).

Spear mortar's firing speed is up to 16 rounds/minute, maximum firing range is 7 km, the time to switch from marching to combat and vice versa takes only 1 minute, and the accuracy is also very high thanks to being equipped with a modern fire control system.

Spear 120 mm self-propelled mortar researched and manufactured by Israel's Elbit Systems Group

Although possessing outstanding features, the Spear mortar has the disadvantage of being relatively expensive, while Vietnam's defense budget is still very limited.

If we want to buy, we need to consider very carefully because we have to prioritize more urgent weapons such as main battle tanks or long-range artillery. In addition, it is very possible that Vietnam already has a "homegrown" option.

The article "Mastering technology to ensure technical safety of military vehicles" published in the People's Army newspaper said that the Military Mechanical Engineering Institute is researching the topic of integrating 100 mm mortars onto UAZ vehicles.

The chassis expected to carry the mortar is likely to be a converted UAZ 469 off-road vehicle. If the canvas roof and rear seats are removed, this vehicle will have enough space to hold the 100mm mortar researched and manufactured by Vietnam.

UAZ 469 car with the tarpaulin and rear seats removed.

The above method can be seen to have many similarities with the process of mounting the 105mm M101 towed gun onto the Ural truck chassis that is currently underway. This method saves a lot of investment costs because all materials are available.

Although its power, accuracy, and range cannot be compared to the Spear self-propelled mortar, its price is certainly much cheaper. Therefore, it is highly likely that in the future, Vietnam will not learn from Thailand to buy Spear self-propelled mortar as many predicted, but will put its trust in domestic products.

According to Baodatviet