Ukraine: Will Vietnam buy Su-34 fighter jets to replace Su-22?

Vietnam is expected to choose to buy Su-34 fighter jets to replace its aging Su-22 aircraft in its air force modernization program.

These are the comments in the recent assessment report "Defense Growth in Vietnam" by the Ukroboronprom arms export corporation, Ukraine, published publicly on the website Ukroboronprom.com.ua.

According to reports, Vietnam is making efforts to implement a program to modernize its air defense capabilities. It has signed a contract with Russia to supply eight Su-30MK2 fighters worth about $400 million without weapons and 12 Su-30MK2 fighters with weapons worth $1 billion.

Sukhoi is even said to have held negotiations with Vietnam to build a Sukhoi aircraft maintenance center, but the results of the negotiations were not publicly disclosed.

Russian Su-34 fighter jet.

The report said that the Vietnam Air Force currently has more than 20 Su-27/Su-30s. This force is planning to deploy about 4 regiments equipped with Russian-origin fighter jets. Thus, the number is likely to increase to 45 Su-27/30s. This will be the backbone of the Vietnam Air Force's defense and attack force.

Notably, according to Ukroboronprom, if nothing changes, the Vietnam Air Force's aircraft portfolio will include Su-34 fighters. They will most likely be the choice for Vietnam to replace its aging Su-22 attack aircraft.

In addition, the report also noted that the most active aircraft in the Vietnam Air Force is the MiG-21. But in just 5-10 years, this number of fighters will be completely removed from service. The report said that it is very likely that Vietnam will choose the JAS-39 Gripen to replace the MiG-21 fighters.

Along with modernizing the air force, Vietnam is also said to be renewing its tank and armored forces. According to Ukroboronprom, the Vietnamese Army is still using old Soviet-era tanks such as the T-55 and T-72. Vietnam will most likely continue to buy T-90 main battle tanks from Russia to gradually replace old tanks. However, it is not excluded that Vietnam will choose to modernize its T-54/55 fleet.

In addition, according to Ukroboronprom, Vietnam held talks with Russian, Chinese and Israeli partners in February 2014 on building a factory to produce hand-held weapons. The result is said to be that Vietnam is leaning towards choosing Israel's Galil rifle instead of Russia's Kalashnikov rifle.

According to Knowledge Newspaper