Russian-made Vietnamese fighter jet disappears over South China Sea
Missing fighter-bomber was one of 30 in use by Vietnam, which seeks to modernise its defence capability
A Russian-made Vietnamese fighter jet was missing on Tuesday after disappearing off the radar during a training flight along the central part of the country’s South China Sea coastline, a military official said.
The Sukhoi SU-30 MK2 was flying 30-40km off the coast of Nghe An province next to China’s Hainan island when it went missing and practise flights by the same jet model had since been suspended, said Senior Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, the deputy armed forces chief of staff.
“We haven’t found the jet yet, we are still looking,” he said. Asked about the possible reason for its disappearance, Tuan said: “We have to find it to know it.”
The incident follows a series of mishaps in the past two years with its ageing helicopters and at a time when Vietnam recalibrates its defence strategy and oversees its biggest military buildup in four decades.
The country is seeking to modernise its defence capability, ostensibly as a deterrent against the military rise of Beijing and its growing assertiveness in the South China Sea, over which the two communist neighbours have competing claims.