Updated on April 21, 2025, 03:40 HAE
Bangkok-Vietnam has entered into an agreement with the United States to buy F-16 fighter planes, said a defense website, citing industry representatives and a former American official.
Hanoi acquires at least 24 monomotor fighters from Lockheed Martin who, combined with other American military articles, could add the largest defense agreement between two countries, 19FortyFive said on Saturday. It is likely that Hanoi will opt for the F-16 V model, which Lockheed calls the most advanced fourth fourth fighter, said the site.
The United States also plans to sell a Hercules C-130 military transport aircraft in Lockheed Martin in Vietnam, according to the Reuters news agency. The United States has raised a long-standing arms embargo on its former enemy Vietnam in 2016.
In 2022 Hanoi said he was ready to reduce his high dependence on Russian weapons, which represented around 80% of the total importance of weapons at the time.
A year later, during the visit of the president of the time, Joe Biden, in Hanoi, Vietnam and the United States, began to speak seriously about a major agreement.
It may have been materialized this month, after Vietnam rushed to reduce its record of record trade with the United States in front of 46%threatened tariffs.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said earlier in April that Vietnam would buy more American weapons in the fight against commercial imbalance between the two countries.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not responded to calls from Radio Free Asia concerning the reported F-16 agreement. An e-mail in the American State Department was unanswered at the time of publication.
Without official confirmation, an analyst has recommended prudence, stressing that many details are not yet clear.
“Will the plane be new or second-hand? If new, how will Vietnam allow itself, and Washington is ready to offer the latest variants in Vietnam,” asked Ian Storey, a principal researcher at the Iseasof Ishak Institute of Singapore.
“If second-one, why would Vietnam want advanced aircraft? Would Congress be greeted by the sale or the human rights file of Vietnam puts an obstacle?”
A US military switch
In November of last year, Vietnam received the delivery of five Turbopoppette Aircraft with engine with Beechcraft engine, the first batch of 12 ordered in the United States
The planes, built by Textron Aviation, are used to train fighter aircraft pilots, which sparked the speculation that an agreement on the F-16 was close.
Russia has provided most of Vietnam’s military planes, including 35 Sukhoi su-30 and more than 30 Su-22, but there was an increasing concern about the security and maintenance of the aging fleet.
At the beginning of last year, an air force fighter from Vietnam SU-22 lost control and crashed during a routine training in the province of Quang Nam.
In November, a Russian training plane Yak-130 exploded in the air in the province of Binh Dinh. His two pilots ejected and survived.
Chinese concerns
Storey, the expert from ATEAS, said that a passing from Russian planes to Americans “would bring a blow” to relations between Moscow and Hanoi. This “would also risk provoking anger from China,” he said.
The Chinese President and Minister of Defense both went to Vietnam this month, speaking of relations and even seeming to resolve territorial disputes in the Southern China Sea.
Supported by the state of China Global times The newspaper criticized the possible American military ties of Vietnam when the Biden administration increased the prospect of sales of F-16 two years ago.
He cited defense experts as saying that an agreement “serving the American hegemonic objectives to contain China, would arouse problems that sabotage peace and stability in the region.”
It was not a secret for anyone that Vietnam reported Chinese concerns as a sensitive question during the discussion of the F-16 sale with the United States, according to Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at Australia University of New South Wales, Canberra.
China has criticized jet sales in Taiwan and the Philippines as a threat to its sovereignty and regional stability, but Vietnam was better prepared, he said.
“Vietnam seems to have taken the ground to get F-16 from the United States by simultaneously increasing defense cooperation with China,” he said.
American planes are likely to attach to certain attached channels, added Thayer.
“The F-16S package will undoubtedly include US military access to Vietnamese military facilities for training, maintenance and other supporters, but not permanent parking of American Air Force or American naval ships on Vietnamese territory.”
Published by Tajun Kang and Stephen Wright
Update with the comments of Ian Storey and Carl Thayer