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| The Singapore variant of the SPYDER SAM System |
by Chen Chuanren
Vietnam took delivery last month of a second batch of Rafael Python and Derby (SPYDER) surface-to-air missiles. The first batch was delivered last July, but that was not the first time the communist state had sourced defense equipment from Israel. And Vietnam could be the customer for a $110 million upgrade of Mil Mi-17 helicopters that Elbit Systems has recently secured from “an Asia-Pacific country.”
Vietnam signed a deal for the SPYDER system on October 2015. Not disclosed is whether the deal was for the short-range (SR) or the medium-range (MR) variant. Mounted on the Rheinmetall MAN HX 8x8 trucks, Vietnam’s package also includes 200 Derby and Python missiles each.
Since the end of Vietnam War, Russia and Eastern-bloc states such as Romania and Ukraine have been Vietnam’s main arms suppliers. However, in the last decade Hanoi has bought Western military equipment, and in the last five years, Israeli products. The latter have included the IAI-Elta EL/M-2288 air defence radar and EL/M-2022 airborne radar for three Guardian 400 maritime patrol aircraft based on the DHC-6 Twin Otter, and supplied by Viking Air of Canada.
Read the full story at AINonline