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Vietnam may drop purchase of new batch of Israeli air defense missile systems – source

A source close to Vietnam’s Defense Ministry told TASS Israeli SPYDER short-range air defense missile systems "operate poorly in tropical conditions and regularly break down”

SPYDER short-range air defense missile systems AP Photo/Joseph Nair

SPYDER short-range air defense missile systems

© AP Photo/Joseph Nair

MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. Vietnam may give up further purchases of Israeli SPYDER (Surface-to-air PYthon and DERby) short-range air defense missile systems due to flaws found in these weapons, a source close to Vietnam’s Defense Ministry told TASS.

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Moscow remains Hanoi’s reliable ally — Vietnamese defense official

“The Defense Ministry of Vietnam is against purchasing a new batch of Israeli SPYDER short-range systems. Specifically, in the estimate of military specialists, these systems operate poorly in tropical conditions and regularly break down,” the source said.

The SPYDER weapons are also incompatible with the earlier supplied Russian surface-to-air missile systems, “which lowers the efficiency of Vietnam’s united air defense,” the source added.

“The Israeli systems have been test-fired in Vietnam since the beginning of this year and in most cases these firings failed,” the source noted.

TASS does not yet have official comments from the Vietnamese and Israeli defense ministries.

A contract with Israel’s Rafael for the delivery of SPYDER surface-to-air missile systems to Vietnam was signed in 2015. The sum of the deal was not disclosed. According to open sources, the Vietnamese side then acquired five or six batteries of these air defense systems and 250 missiles for them.

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Vietnam Israel Missile defense

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