Posted on 08/13/2019 4:05:12 AM PDT by robowombat
As China Looms, Vietnam Aims to Develop a More Modern, Skilled Navy
By Ralph Jennings August 12, 2019
A Vietnamese military official advocates developing a more modern, better skilled navy that can hold off complex threats, mainly what experts believe to be increasing pressure from China.
A rear admiral and political commissar in Hanoi told the official Viet Nam News August 6 that the navy could not be "taken by surprise at any development.
"In this complicated situation that poses many threats to the country's defense and security, given the Navy's role as the key defender of the country's sovereignty, the Viet Nam People's Navy must do more to build a strong, developed, skilled and modern naval force that can fulfill all assigned missions," said the commissar, Phạm Văn Vững.
The commissar's words follow the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel in March – Vietnam says at the hands of China.
More recently, Chinese coast guard boats have approached a Vietnamese undersea energy exploration site near Vanguard Bank in the South China Sea. China and Vietnam vie for sovereignty over tracts of the sea where these two incidents have occurred. These two upsets are just the latest between the territorial rivals dating back centuries.
Naval improvements would help Vietnam deter China, analysts believe, though Vietnamese naval firepower is unlikely to come near equaling that of China.
"I think all they can think of doing is being a bit of a deterrent," said Murray Hiebert, deputy director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Neither Vietnam nor China wants somebody to fire the first shot. That would be pretty serious. So, Vietnam sends in vessels to sort of block China."
Navy, present and future
Today's Vietnamese navy has 65 vessels including six submarines and six frigates, according to research database GlobalFirePower.com. It needs a "mastery of modern weapons" and "careful planning" of logistics issues, the commissar said earlier this month via Viet Nam News.
China today has one of the world's most powerful navies at 714 vessels including 76 submarines, 33 destroyer and an aircraft carrier, GlobalFirePower.com says.
China claims about 90 percent of the disputed sea, overlapping Vietnam's smaller claim as well as tracts that four other governments call their own. The other claimants are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan.
Chinese maritime activity alarms particularly Vietnam because China controls the full Paracel archipelago, a South China Sea tract vehemently claimed by Hanoi. Much of Vietnam's population resents China over the maritime dispute.
"Vietnam realized that they had to modernize their navy to cope with the harassment from the Chinese coast guard," said Trung Nguyen, international relations dean at Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
Foreign help
The Vietnamese navy should work with foreign governments, the commissar was quoted saying. It "must effectively coordinate with other military forces and civilian forces to build a whole-nation defense and people-based defense, while at the same time, maintaining diplomatic efforts, especially in terms of exchanges with naval forces from other countries," he said.
The Southeast Asian country acquired six U.S. patrol boats this year. It normally taps Russia for weaponry, such as missile stealth frigates, Hiebert said.
Washington may eventually push to send its aircraft carriers to Vietnam once a year, Thayer said. The U.S. government has been massing allies in Asia over the past two years to help contain China's maritime expansion.
More spats ahead?
China and Vietnam are used to conflicts over maritime sovereignty, and new ones come up despite diplomatic moves to solve previous ones.
They had already gotten into "confrontations" over fuel exploration near Vanguard Bank in the 1990s, said Carl Thayer, Southeast Asia-specialized emeritus professor with the University of New South Wales.
Vietnam backed away from the site last year but never agreed to stay away in the long term, Thayer said. This time, he said, Chinese vessels reached Vietnam's continental shelf.
"So, now we have the arrival of this Chinese ship this year, and it's operating on the Vietnamese side of the exclusive economic zone," Thayer said.
Yeah. They made there bed in April 75. Enjoy being a satellite
Yeah. They made THEIR bed in 74. Enjoy being a satellite.
Not without help.
Vietnam. The next 3rd world Communist country with vast supplies of slave labor for Free Traitor™ to fall in love with.
“Vietnam. The next 3rd world Communist country with vast supplies of slave labor for Free Traitor™ to fall in love with.”
Already did. I used to hire Vietnamese coders because they were better and cheaper than Indian coders. Frankly I didn’t want to go off-shore however those were my marching orders from leadership.
Same nightmare, just cheaper.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Smart strategery. Though the heads of my friends who fought in ‘Nam must be exploding right about now.
Da Nang’s a great harbor. They should offer us a base there.
And as a bonus, we could send Connecticut democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal to cut the base opening ribbon.
Then he’d finally live up to his nickname, “Da Nang Dick”.
In Vietnam politicians lost the war....but the US has won the peace.
Geopolitically, our interests align and we should be allies to contain China.
But I hate commies so screw em.
Japan was an enemy, now they're not.
Vietnam was an enemy. To many of us they still are.
The difference is in the way those conflicts ended.
With Japan they surrendered.
With Vietnam our Congress surrendered.
Give them the $4 billion Kissinger promised.
Vietnam can put up a good fight:
Chinese withdrawal
On 6 March, China declared that the gate to Hanoi was open and that their punitive mission had been achieved, although Vietnam’s presence in Cambodia still continued for the next 10 years to help prevent the resurgence of the Khmer Rouge. On the way back to the Chinese border, the PLA destroyed all local infrastructure and housing and looted all useful equipment and resources (including livestock), severely weakening the economy of Vietnam’s northernmost provinces.[9] The PLA crossed the border back into China on 16 March. Both sides declared victory with China claiming to have crushed the Vietnamese resistance and Vietnam claiming to have repelled the invasion using mostly border militias. Henry J. Kenny, a research scientist for US Center for Naval Analyses, notes that most Western writers agree that Vietnam outperformed the PLA on the battlefield.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War#Chinese_withdrawal
(After they argue about the shape of a table for a few months.)
Vietnam is close enough (>200 miles) to saturate the Chinese Military bases on Hainan Island with missiles. Hainan is a main area that China has developed, to project power through the South China Sea.
They kind of have to deal with Hainan, if they want to get ships in and out of Hanoi during hostilities.
Yeah. I could blame the commies and hippies. But it was the Johnson regime that started a war they he never intended to win. He fought it to no end. By the time Nixon got it he was hamstrung by Congress influenced by the commies in media.
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