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| P-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft |
BY ANDREA SHALAL
Vietnam and South Korea are looking seriously at buying refurbished Lockheed Martin Corp P-3 and S-3 maritime surveillance planes to counter China's military buildup and repeated North Korean missile launches, the company said.
Vietnam is expected to request formal pricing and availability data on four to six older U.S. Navy P-3 Orion aircraft in the next few months, Clay Fearnow, a senior executive with Lockheed's aeronautics division, told Reuters at the Berlin air show last week.
The Obama administration's move to completely lift its arms embargo on Vietnam last month paved the way for such a sale, but any deal would still have to be carefully reviewed by the U.S. government, according to U.S. and Lockheed officials.
A senior Vietnamese military official told Reuters over the weekend that significant weapons purchases are some way off.
"We are not sure what we can buy from the U.S. or what we want to buy," Deputy Defence Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh said in some of the first public comments from a Vietnamese defence official since the embargo was lifted.
Washington's decision to permit lethal arms sales to Vietnam, its former enemy, underscored both countries' shared concerns about China's growing military clout.
Read the full story at Reuters