Vietnam Seeks U.S.

Equipment to Close Military Gaps

By The Editors, on 06 Jul 2012, Global Insider In June, Vietnam asked the U.S. to end a ban on lethal weapon sales to the country in service of its ongoing military upgrade. In an email interview, Carlyle A. Thayer, an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defense Force Academy, discussed Vietnams military modernization. WPR: What is the current size, scope and capability of Vietnam's military, and what are the major gaps it is seeking to fill? Carlyle A. Thayer: The Vietnam Peoples Army (VPA) totals 482,000 main forces, comprised of the army (412,000), navy (40,000) and air-defense air force (30,000). The armed forces also include a 40,000 strong paramilitary Border Guard and a reserve force estimated at 5 million. The VPA remains a land force that is rated good on a four-point scale (poor, fair, good, very good) in its capacity to defend territory, fair in its capacity to seize territory and fair in its ability to carry out a constabulary role. The VPA modernization efforts are unlikely to change these assessments by 2015. The VPA is currently rated as poor in the category of strategic strike, but modernization efforts underway are expected to raise this to fair by 2015. Vietnam is currently seeking to modernize its naval and air forces and develop the capacity to conduct joint operations in its maritime domain. WPR: Who are Vietnam's main defense partners and weapons providers? Thayer: Russia is Vietnams leading provider of weapons. In recent years Vietnam has acquired two batteries of the S-300PMU-1 air defense missile system, two batteries of the Bastion coastal defense missile, 20 Su-30MK2 multirole fighters, six Svetlyak-class patrol boats, two Gepard-class guided missile frigates and various types of anti-ship missiles from Russia. Vietnam is expected to take delivery of six Kilo-class conventional submarines beginning in 2014. Ukraine, India, Israel and the Czech Republic are the next major arms suppliers. In a new development, Vietnam is acquiring four Sigma-class corvettes from the Netherlands. WPR: How likely is the U.S. to lift the ban on the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam, and

what would the immediate impact be? Thayer: In 2007, the George W. Bush administration amended the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to permit the sale of nonlethal weapons to Vietnam on a caseby-case basis. Restrictions were kept in place on weapons and equipment that could be used by ground forces in crowd control. All lethal weapons and many military services remained banned. The Obama administration has made it to clear to Vietnam that its poor human rights record remains a major impediment. In January, when U.S. Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman visited Hanoi, they were given a wish list of military equipment. They made clear at a press conference that they opposed the removal of arms restrictions until Vietnam improved its human rights record. When U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta visited Hanoi in June, Vietnamese Defense Minister Gen. Phung Quang Thanh requested that the U.S. remove all ITAR restrictions. Panetta passed on the same message. If the ban were lifted, Vietnam most likely would seek to acquire coastal radar, air defense missiles and maritime patrol aircraft in addition to spare parts for its inventory of Vietnam War-captured American equipment. Photo: The Soviet built project 205-ER Vietnamese missile boat HQ-359 (photo by Wikimedia user Truongsa7, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).