Vietnam is close to agreeing to a deal for the export of the Hanwha Aerospace K9 155mm self-propelled howitzer (SPH), according to South Korean media reports.
Citing unnamed military officials, South Korean media reported on 20 January that Hanoi and Seoul are in the final stages of negotiation for around 20 K9 SPHs worth about US$300 million.
If this deal materialises, Vietnam will become the 11th country in the world and the first Southeast Asian country to operate the K9 SPH. The type has already been acquired by Australia, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, India, Norway, Poland, Romania and Türkiye.
Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) earlier suggested that it could acquire South Korean arms and equipment such as the K9 SPH for the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA), according to Deputy Defense Minister Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien.
Snr Lt Gen Hoang made the remarks to his South Korean counterpart Lieutenant General (retd) Kim Seon-ho during the 11th Vietnam-Republic of Korea Defence Policy Dialogue in Hanoi in April 2024, while expressing Vietnam’s desire to expand defence industrial cooperation with South Korea.
At the time, the South Korean MND also noted in a separate statement that Snr Lt Gen Hoang had “evaluated Korean weapons systems and expressed his intention to expand defence industry cooperation, including the introduction of Korean weapon systems such as the K9 SPH and requested cooperation from the Korean government”.
The latest development follows a high-level Vietnamese MND visit led by Minister of National Defense General Phan Van Giang to South Korea in February 2023. Official photographs released by the MND-run People’s Army Newspaper showed Gen Phan and his entourage touring a Republic of Korea Army (RoKA) VII Maneuver Corps base and inspecting a range of weapons and equipment, including the K9 SPH.
According to several Vietnamese and Korean reports, Gen Phan had also been briefed by Hanwha Aerospace executives on the company’s systems.
Although the largest and most experienced of the three military services, the VPA faces an uphill task in raising its professionalism and maintaining its large inventories of Chinese and Soviet-made legacy combat vehicles and equipment, particularly with the loss of foreign assistance following its conflict with the China and subsequently the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
For instance, the VPA is seeking to replace its eclectic and decades-old inventories of artillery systems, including captured US-made 105mm M101 and 155mm M1 and M114 howitzers, as well as Soviet-vintage 152mm M1955/D-20 field guns.
by Jr Ng
