One of Israel’s largest aerospace companies, Israel Aerospace Industries, has secured a contract to supply Vietnam’s military with two surveillance satellites worth US$680 million, the newspaper Haaretz reported.
The observation satellites would help Vietnam “address China’s provocations against its neighbors in the South China Sea,” the Israeli paper quoted unidentified defense industry sources as saying.
Radio Free Asia was not able to independently verify the information.
A Vietnamese source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject, said the government-owned firm Israel Aerospace Industries, or IAI, had a long history of cooperation with Vietnam and news of negotiations over a satellite deal had surfaced as early as 2018.
According to Haaretz, besides IAI, France’s Thales and the U.S. company Lockheed Martin were also offering surveillance satellites to Vietnam and “there could still be problems” for the Israeli contractor.
The paper cited Israeli sources as saying Vietnam was “a tough customer” and agreements can fall through because of domestic rivalry or pressure from other foreign contractors.
The Vietnamese client is believed to be the so-called General Department II of the Vietnamese army, or the military intelligence department, the newspaper said.
Satellites ‘too expensive’
Haaretz said that under the secured deal, the Israeli firm would sell two satellites to Vietnam, including “an optical imagery photography satellite and a synthetic-aperture radar satellite that provides a picture of the ground even at night or through complete cloud cover.”
One of them could be the OptSat 3000, an advanced electro optical satellite, equipped with a 70 cm aperture telescope and sensitive sensor and capable of delivering “better than 50 cm high resolution imagery of locations on Earth,” according to IAI.
Each satellite would cost US$300 million without launch facilities, “a price that space experts say is excessive,” the paper said, noting that in Vietnam corruption remained “rampant, even at the top.”
A businesswoman, Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan, who was believed to act as an intermediary for arms procurement from Israel to Vietnam, is on a Vietnamese wanted list for bid rigging and bribery but domestic media did not mention any defense deal.
Israel in recent years has become one of the top defense suppliers to Vietnam as it seeks to diversify its arms and military equipment procurement to reduce dependence on traditional partner Russia.
It is estimated that Vietnam has bought about US$2 billion worth of equipment from Israeli companies, including air defense systems, drones and radar systems.
“These technologies, especially radars, are what Israel is really good at,” said Yusuf Unjhawala, a defense analyst in Bangalore, India.
The satellites may be costly but Vietnam “needs its own tools of surveillance,” Unjhawala told RFA.
Vietnam and China are locked in a complex territorial dispute in the South China Sea, where China holds an expansive claim of up to 90% of the waterway.
IAI was present at several defense exhibitions in Hanoi to showcase its products and is reportedly aiming to establish a joint venture to manufacture military hardware in Vietnam.
Edited by Mike Firn