Vietnam buys Delilah missiles to equip Su-30

According to Flightglobal, Vietnam is looking to buy Delilah air-to-ground cruise missiles made in Israel to equip Su-30 fighters.

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Extremely powerful equipment

According to this source, this type of cruise missile was discussed by the Vietnamese side with Mr. Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Chairman of the Israeli IMI Group in Hanoi recently. Although the results of the discussion were not announced, this move shows that Israel is becoming an important partner of Vietnam, especially in the defense sector.

Manufacturer IMI introduced, Delilah missile has the ability to detect and destroy targets quickly with very high accuracy. This missile plays a very important role in the Israeli Air Force and the equipped forces, it can change the balance of forces on the battlefield and create a great advantage in air combat.

Vietnam Su-30MK2 fighter.

In fact, Delilah is a reconnaissance/strike missile equipped with a jet engine that allows it to scout and destroy targets at very long distances with a range of up to 250 km.

Delilah can attack targets with the help of GPS satellite navigation systems or its own inertial navigation system. In the terminal phase of its trajectory, the missile uses self-homing mode.

Due to its light weight and compact modular design, Delilah can be equipped with different warheads and installed on UH-60A and SH-60B helicopters, F-16 fighters or MLRS ground-based missile launchers.

Delilah can rapidly engage targets from concealed launch positions, allowing precise aiming and rapid engagement of armored or unarmored, mobile or stationary targets in all weather conditions, day and night, and at various ranges.

Before crashing into the target at subsonic speed, the target's coordinates are installed into Delilah's flight control program memory and the missile continuously connects to the global positioning system (GPS) to correct its flight path to the target so Delilah can achieve accuracy within a few meters.

Vietnam's difficulties

Although the information about Vietnam negotiating to buy Delilah missiles has not been verified, according to Colonel Makar Aksenenko, Associate Doctor of Military Sciences of Russia, equipping Su fighter jets with non-standard weapons leads to changes in the structure and equipment of the aircraft. And there are serious problems here, Russian experts warn.

"Here we are talking about repair and maintenance services for exported weapons and military equipment. Unauthorized interference by third parties (especially serious interference) with the Su-30 equipment can lead to disastrous consequences for customers purchasing this product.

All those customers who have tried to improve Russian technology without interacting with the manufacturers simply no longer have the possibility of providing maintenance services for these complex systems. The best option is to continue to use as much of the standard weapons as possible, as well as the potential weapons that are allowed to be used on Russian-made fighters.

I would like to say frankly that attempts to equip the Su aircraft of the Vietnam Air Force with non-standard and even "third-party" weapons are nothing more than a waste of state money with questionable results and to the combat readiness of the Vietnam Air Force," Colonel Makar Aksenenko concluded.

According to Baodatviet