Asia Defense | Security | Southeast Asia

Artillery-Missile Command: Vietnam’s Answer to the Maritime-Continental Dilemma

Long-range surface-to-surface and ground-based anti-ship missiles will help defend the country on both land and sea.

An air defense gun on display at a military museum in Binh Duong, Vietnam, Nov. 16, 2021.

Vietnam’s military modernization is setting off in a new direction. Instead of procuring naval platforms such as submarines or frigates to defend its South China Sea claims, as it did in the 2010s, the country is looking to upgrade and acquire long-range surface-to-surface and ground-based anti-ship missiles (ASMs) to guard against both continental and maritime threats.

A number of recent developments show that this is the case.

First, Vietnam established the Artillery-Missile Command based on the Artillery Corps in August of last year. The Command was intended to be leaner, given expanded duties, and equipped with more advanced weaponry. Second, it introduced the domestically produced shore-based ASM system Truong Son and showed off the Scud-B tactical ballistic missiles procured from the Soviet Union in the 1980s, on the 80th anniversary of Vietnam’s founding. Hanoi also revealed that it succeeded in upgrading the range of the Scud-B from 300 to 500 kilometers. In May, Vietnam signed a $629 million BrahMos missile deal with India. Third, it is moving the 380th Missile Brigade from Thai Nguyen province in northern Vietnam to Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands, whose mountainous terrain and position at the center of the Indochinese peninsula can help Vietnam project power further southwest in response to security uncertainty from Cambodia. The 380th Missile Brigade is one of Vietnam’s two ballistic missile brigades, along with the 490th Missile Brigade based in Hai Phong in the northeast.

Vietnam’s rationale for this focus on missile forces is rooted in the maritime-continental dilemma. As I argued a few years ago, Vietnam is torn between allocating its resources to the continental west and the maritime east. Land-based platforms such as tanks, artillery, or armored personnel carriers cannot be deployed to defend the country’s outposts in the South China Sea. Frigates, submarines, or patrol boats likewise cannot guard Vietnam’s borders with Laos and Cambodia. Due to resource constraints, Vietnam cannot procure both platforms, and this makes little sense anyway considering that China could easily win an arms race in such a scenario. Vietnam’s air force can defend the two domains, but its Su-22, Su-27, and Su-30 fighters are aging fast. Vietnam has looked to replace its fleet with F-16 and Su-35 fighters, but those deals have not materialized. Vietnam also lacks modern long-range bombers. Missiles thus become the most suitable option for multi-domain deterrence and defense.

Vietnam’s military doctrine is to defend the country early and from afar, and missiles’ long range and quick reaction time fit this doctrine. Importantly, missiles can help resolve Vietnam’s maritime-continental dilemma thanks to their adaptability to multiple geographical domains. ASMs allow Vietnam to prevent an enemy navy from operating in its territorial waters by harassing its naval strike groups. Long-range surface-to-surface missiles can threaten targets in western Indochina or maritime outposts. The fact that these missiles are land-based means they have better survivability compared to frigates or patrol boats, which are exposed on the open ocean. Vietnam’s mountainous and jungle terrain coupled with silos provides the ideal cover for a missile system, while logistics and maintenance lines are more robust on land than at sea. Vietnam’s military has........

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