The US and Vietnam discuss the supply of C-130 planes to Hanoi
The United States and Vietnam are involved in talks related to the sale of C-130 transport planes to the latter. As a part of the sale, there is a possibility that the United States would offer financial support. Vietnam has been looking to diversify its sources for defense needs. One of the main concerns for this move involves China’s actions in the South China Sea. In addition to Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines, China has had altercations with Vietnamese fishing and shipping in areas China claims is theirs.
From Reuters:
The talks could lead to a supply agreement this year, the sources said, in what would represent Vietnam’s largest military deal since it said publicly at the end of 2022 that it intended to diversify its defence supplies, which have for decades relied heavily on Russian gear.
The C-130 can carry soldiers, military equipment and other supplies, and would boost Vietnamese defence capabilities at a time of rising South China Sea boundary tensions with China and other countries in the region.
The United States could offer Hanoi financial support as part of a sale, the sources said. One of the sources, a U.S. official, said that could amount to tens of millions of dollars covering maintenance and other costs.
The other source, a Vietnamese person briefed on the talks, said the model under consideration was the C-130J, the aircraft’s latest iteration.
Neither source would indicate the total cost of the possible deal and the number of planes under discussion. Both declined to be named because the talks were not public.
Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), opens new tab referred questions to the U.S. or Vietnamese governments. The White House declined to comment, and Vietnam’s defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Talks on U.S. arms supplies to Communist-ruled Vietnam have been under way for months, before major changes in Vietnamese leadership, which experts and analysts say should not significantly change the country’s posture on foreign and economic affairs.
Additional reading:
Guarascio, F., & Hunnicutt, T. (2024, July 24). Exclusive: US, Vietnam discuss supplying Hanoi with C-130 military transport planes, sources say. Reuters. Link.
Category: International Affairs, Vietnam
Better outfit them with skis because they’re gonna need them
when Hell freezes over.
There are several C-130’s that are parked around the Lockheed plant on Dobbins ARB that were built for Iran before the fall of the Shah but were never delivered.
Sell those to Vietnam and keep them parked where they are.
I’m thinking it is going to happen. The war ended nearly 50 years ago and relations with the US are pretty good. Whatever Americans might think of Vietnam, Vietnamese people actually like the US, more so than any other country in the world, which might seem strange but there is a lot going on there.
Vietnam has taken a huge step back back from actual communism like most of the world. They haven’t even had a chair for the communist party for several years. They are certainly no friends with China, who supported them during the war with South Vietnam and then stabbed them in the wholely in the back as soon as the war was over.
They realized almost immediately that communism was never going and switched to a mixed market economy in the mid 80s, before the wall came down. The country is huge with a population over 100M, a regional player and has more military capabilities then any US ally in the region except Japan.
Vietnam eliminated the Khmer Rouge which did the whole world a favor and have otherwise been a fair player with foreign relations. Honestly, I can’t say that the government treatment of internal political opposition is any worse than that of the US Democratic Party.
Just yesterday I bought 2 six packs of Hanes mens briefs at
Walmart. Made in Vietnam. Low quality material but cheap
enough to toss rather than launder.
True that. They sure like us better than the Chinese and we expended a lot of blood/treasure fighting for their southern buddies and didn’t make them a colony like China would.
I wonder how many vintage 130s are still over there from the 60s
VNAF had 34. And the current dudes like our stuff and keep it on good condition even in storage.
70 were lost in crashes or combat in Vietnam. Don’t know how many were recovered, but the jungles might be full of them.
Why not sell them the Osprey instead?
I would imagine they don’t want Ospreys. They’re communist, not stupid.
😂😂😂😂
The irony is amazing. If we had supported Uncle Ho when he asked for it, instead of siding with the French (who stabbed us in the back when they lost) we would have avoided the war entirely. Thousands of our troops would have had a life and we would have denied the Soviets and Chinese an ally in the region.
Perhaps history won’t have to repeat itself this century.
I wish that you are right, but I’m afraid that history I’d absolutely going to repeat itself. Especially since so many out there are so hell bent on erasing all of it so that they can FEEL better!
You’re spot on and correct, Old tanker. Both Uncle Ho and Mao were our allies and buds…until they weren’t. And them not being our buds was totally on our own grubermint/MIC.
TBH, I’m more concerned about the potential thousands of chinese nationalists of military age that have come thru our open border than I am the chinese that are threatening the Vietnamese.
We are 0 for 2 in picking the right allies in Asia. Neither Ho (when he was still Nguyễn Sinh Cung) nor Mao wanted communism, they wanted freedom and looked to Uncle Sam as a big brother to help. Nguyen idolized George Washington and was let down by that cuck ass Wilson.
But, we sided with the flailing French and corrupt Chiang Kai Shek. Maybe we “owed” the French for their support centuries past. And since Nguyen asked for help at the end of the Great War, maybe we feeled we still owed them because the big payment on 6 June 1944 hadn’t yet occurred.
No excuse on China though. We are still suffering from that decision.
You could say that communism wasn’t so much a political ideology as it was a tool for uniting the country.
You can probably add Iran to that post WW2 screw up list.
Democrats gonna get us into wars. It’s one of their favorite past times.
True, he only wanted the same deal we gave the Philippines– just take ‘Nam off the French’s hands for a bit and it’s all good!
I’m pretty sure that Eggs knows of a few acres of C-130’s that could go cheap.
I’m sure they wouldn’t miss a couple of them 😎
That does it, I’m going back to heavy drinking, and I’m going to add smoking pot. Things have finally taken that last full turn into the surreal…
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
Hunter S. Thompson
Believe I remember a “border clash” between China and Vietnam in the early ’80s… Somewhere around 10 DIVISIONS involved
NVA kicked Chicom ass. PLA did not do well.
Close TopGoz, but no cigar.
The eight C-130’s at Dobbins ANG Base in Marietta Georgia were bought and paid for by Libya under the leadership of Moammar Gadhafi. They were built, tested, and then rolled out to the back acreage of the base and parked. They have been literally rotting in the Georgia sun for 52 years.
Eagle-eyed observers can spot them on Google Earth.
Here’s a link, with pictures.
https://www.marietta.com/libyas-c-130-hercules-aircraft
Of course, at this point you could buy brand new aircraft off the assembly line for less than what it would take to get them flyable again. I guess they would make a fun ground display, or a kid’s park item.
Wonder how much that total cost has been?
FTA “…State Department continues to pay the associated parking and storage fees charged by Lockheed Martin over the past half century.”
And this, Girls and Boys, is why the grubermint is in debt to the tune of 35 TRILLION $s and why we can’t have nice things.
Thanks for the reminder, Charles. I had forgotten about this boondoggle. My retired wing wiping older brother was heavily involved with the 130J program and had shown/talked with me on these aircraft.
The USAF could have gotten a good on them, like the USN when it bought the Shah’s Kidd-class DDG’s.
Thanks for the correction… it’s been about 12 years since I heard the story from a Lockheed engineer, so the memories are a bit rusty.
As to restoring them to flying status, note the final part of my comment, “Keep them parked where they are.”