Vietnam may soon be producing its own anti-ship missiles with Russian help - the latest move in its attempt to create a naval deterrent to China in the South China Sea dispute.
Mikhail Dmitriyev, the head of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Co-operation, confirmed this week that joint production of a modified Uran Switchblade missile could start in Vietnam this year, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Vietnam's military build-up - including deals to buy state-of-the-art cruise missiles, submarines, ships, fast patrol boats and jet fighters, mostly from Russia, its cold war-era patron - is being closely watched by Beijing and around the region.
Vietnamese officials have yet to comment, while People's Liberation Army strategists are privately continuing to warn Hanoi against overconfidence and 'bellicosity'.
While the Vietnamese already carry the Russian missile on existing ships, the latest step marks the country's maiden attempt at creating its own sophisticated missile plant, in what is seen by analysts and scholars as a significant step in Hanoi's attempt to counter China.
While smaller than China's own 'blue-water' naval ambitions, Hanoi is trying to create a deterrent against a larger foe off its coasts - a smaller version of the strategy that China is deploying against the United States, which remains the largest naval power in East Asia.
Professor Carl Thayer, a veteran scholar of Vietnam's military and the South China Sea, said the move represented an important evolution in Vietnam's ongoing naval build-up.