Vietnam has reportedly reached an agreement with the United States government for the acquisition of a fleet of F-16 fighter jets, a deal that would amount to the largest ever between the two countries.
On Sunday, the defense publication 19FortyFive reported that Hanoi and Washington are getting ready to finalize a deal for the single-engine fighter, following “a long period of talks and negotiations between the two governments.”
The report, which was based on multiple sources, “including a former U.S. government official with knowledge of the negotiations and multiple U.S. defense industry representatives,” stated that the agreement would involve “no less than 24 aircraft.”
“When the F-16s are combined with other platforms that Vietnam would like to source from the U.S., it could all add up to the largest defense arrangement ever reached between the two nations,” it stated. The report comes three weeks after the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency reported that the State Department had approved a major arms sale with the Philippines, including 20 F-16 jets.
While the report has not yet been confirmed by either nation – and some Vietnam watchers are skeptical that the deal will eventuate – such an agreement would reflect Vietnam’s desire to reduce its heavy reliance on Russian arms, which currently account for around 80 percent of its arsenal. Much of this has to do with the difficulties in servicing its ageing fleet of Russian Sukhoi Su-30 and Su-22 jets, although the approach also aligns with Vietnam’s diversified foreign policy doctrine, which has sought to avoid an overreliance on any single major power, and the strategic ramifications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Whether and to what extent Hanoi would turn to Washington to modernize its army and air force has so far been unclear, although talks of a major deal have swirled since 2016, when the U.S. lifted a long-standing embargo on the sale of arms to Vietnam. In late 2022, Vietnam hosted its first-ever international defense expo, which was attended by major U.S. defense manufacturers, including Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the F-16. The following year, Hanoi and Washington established their landmark Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that explicitly pledged an expansion of defense and security cooperation.
Around the same time, there were reports that the two nations had entered into talks about a possible Vietnamese purchase of F-16 fighter jets. Last July, Reuters reported that Vietnam and the U.S. were “discussing the sale of Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules military transport planes to Hanoi.”
The report comes at an important time in U.S.-Vietnam relations, as officials from both sides negotiate a new trade agreement following President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariff” announcement on April 2. Vietnam was hit with a particularly harsh 46 percent tariff on its exports to the U.S., which last year accounted for 29 percent of its total exports and 30 percent of its GDP. In the immediate aftermath of the announcement, the Vietnamese government expressed its disappointment at the imposition of the tariff, with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stating that it “did not reflect the strong bilateral relations between the two nations.”
While the reported deal long predates the recent tariff drama, a multibillion-dollar purchase of F-16 fighters could help Vietnam address U.S. concerns about its lopsided trade surplus. Indeed, it could even potentially offer the Trump administration a way of saving face and backing away from the imposition of the full tariff, if and when it realizes that punishing a close partner will hardly serve its long-term interests in the region.
At the same time, Vietnamese leaders would be anticipating carefully how China’s government might react to such a major arms sale. Hanoi expends a lot of effort in managing its relationship with Beijing, a key part of which is reassuring Chinese officials that Vietnam will never join a U.S.-led containment coalition. As such, a major U.S. arms purchase would at the very least send some tremors through the bilateral relationship with China.
In 2023, in response to early reports about U.S.-Vietnam talks about a possible F-16 acquisition, China’s Global Times quoted Chinese defense analysts as saying that any arms deal that serves Washington’s “hegemonic goals of containing China” would “stir up troubles that sabotage peace and stability in the region.”
China’s government has responded similarly to the possible F-16 deal with the Philippines. “Whatever defense or security cooperation between the Philippines and other countries should not target any third party or harm their interest, still less threaten regional peace and security or escalate tensions in the region,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Guo Jiakun said on April 2.
