Will Israel sell Vietnam Nimrod missiles with Eitan UAVs?
Intelligence Online has just posted information saying that Israel's IAI Group is actively offering to sell Heron UAVs to Vietnam, most likely the Eitan version.
According to Intelligence Online, the bid that Vietnam is offering is worth up to 160 million USD for 3 unmanned aircraft. Based on the large cost as above, most opinions believe that the UAV Heron version that IAI Group is offering us is the Heron TP, also known as Eitan.
The Eitan UAV has the ability to attack the ground with anti-tank missiles similar to the US MQ-9 Reaper, so if Vietnam buys this attack UAV version, it will definitely have to come with weapons.
Customers purchasing Eitan UAVs can choose to install US-made AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missiles, but in Vietnam's case, the optimal option is still to equip Israeli air-to-ground missiles.
|
| IAI Nimrod anti-tank missile next to Eitan attack drone |
All the attention is now on the Nimrod air-to-ground anti-tank missile, which is also a product of Israel's IAI Aerospace Industries, so it would not be surprising if the Eitan UAVs that Vietnam may order would be armed with this type of missile.
Nimrod is a heavy anti-tank missile, designed to be launched from fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters or armored vehicles. In addition to its primary anti-tank mission, the missile can also destroy other ground targets as well as small boats.
The Nimrod missile is guided by semi-automatic laser when fired directly, or Non Line Of Sight (NLOS) through target designation from another source, it operates both day and night with a range of 300 - 36,000 m.
|
| Israel's Nimrod anti-tank missile has very impressive technical and tactical features. |
At arms exhibitions, Israel's IAI Defense Industry Group often displays the Nimrod missile along with the Eitan UAV, showing that this is an extremely powerful "pair".
Nimrod has a fairly compact size with a length of 2,650 mm, a body diameter of 170 mm, and a launch weight of only 100 kg. The Eitan UAV can carry up to 4 Nimrod missiles on a mission.
Thanks to the ability to integrate a variety of warheads including two-stage penetrator, high-explosive fragmentation and thermobaric, the Nimrod missile is more versatile than the AGM-114 Hellfire.
If Vietnam chooses the Eitan UAV and the Nmirod missile, this can be considered a new milestone on the path to modernity of the armed forces. We will build a form of combat equivalent to many military powers in the world.
