Vietnam buys fighter jets worth tens of billions of dollars from the Hungarian state aircraft manufacturer G7

In the colors requested by the Vietnamese Air Force foot Aero Vodochody has introduced the long-awaited premiere of its new variant, the L‑39NG. The Hungarian Armed Forces will also buy 12 aircraft of this type, the largest owner of the Czech plant is the Hungarian state, and the Vietnamese army is the first customer.

The majority of Aero Vodochody’s ownership was purchased from the Czech Penta Group in 2021 by Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky in place of the original buyer (András Tombor). After being appointed Minister of Defence, he passed it on to the leader of the Ministry of Labor, Zsolt Hernady, who then sold his share to the Hungarian state a few months later.

The company has remained close to MOL thereafter: the heads of the state holding companies, Gyorgy Baksa, MOL’s strategic director, and Ozkar Villaje, managing director of MOL’s Slovak subsidiary – according to recent press reports, have already played a role in bringing the Hungarian buy-in under the roof. Aero has received a Hungarian government loan of HUF 53 billion from the MFB.

According to the company’s June report, 22 Profit before tax It was 974 million CZK (15.6 billion forints) compared to 70 million in the previous year. This is for the most part to the Iraq agreement It was due to.

The Vietnam Agreement, like Aero sales in general, was handled by a Czech minority owner, Omnipol, led by Richárd Háva, an arms dealer living in Switzerland with a controversial opinion of the Czech Republic. This amount is not public, the Czech press previously wrote about the conversion of tens of billions of forints into forints.

Mainly Vietnam against China update it Its army, which is traditionally based on Soviet/Russian military technology. The Czechs’ previous type of machine, the L-39, was also used for training, and the new agreement builds on this relationship.

Vietnam will buy 12 of the new type, the L-39NG, which will be delivered to them in 2023-24, and the first aircraft may arrive in Hanoi at the end of this year. After the first dozen, there is talk of ordering 12 more machines.

The L-39NG was designed with a major conversion, further development, and modernization of a well known earlier type used in many countries, the L-39 Albatros. From this, Czechoslovakia More than 3,600 two-seat exercise machines were produced through the 1990s. Huge models were acquired by the Hungarian Defense Forces from East Germany in the 1990s, one of which, the hornet-colored Zumi, may have been more widely known from the flying days of Kecskemét. The albatross is still used in many countries today, as it is one of the species known to be reliable Crashed this week In Russia.

Aero Vodochody, after maintaining and refurbishing the older L-39s, is now mostly based on the new type, the jet-powered L-39NG Build your business plans. This is the first trip to Vietnam.

Also L-39NG Primarily a training aircraftIt is primarily useful for training Gripen pilots, although it also has limited use as a reconnaissance and light strike aircraft. The main novelties are composite wings, an American Williams engine, a new cockpit and state-of-the-art electronic and avionics systems.

The Hungarian Air Force will purchase 12 L-39NG aircraft, which was agreed upon in April 2022. It is planned to use eight trainers and four reconnaissance aircraft. Hungarian pilots were trained by Gripen previously in Canada, and this will now be possible from here as well, and training of pilots from other NATO countries will also become possible.

Deliveries to Hungary could start after August 2024, around when previously contracted Vietnam received its own aircraft.

Aero Vodochody has so far approved the sale of a total of 34 L-39NG aircraft. In addition to the Hungarian aircraft, the type will also be used to train Czech fighter pilots, but there are also African buyers (Senegal and Ghana). Current production capacity per month Gradually from one to two want to raise.

It is noteworthy that the role of Aero was also raised in connection with the delivery of Ukrainian weapons, but there is a question about which other types are better used in combat operations, and not L-39NGs that are suitable for training, but not suitable for more serious tasks.

In April, in Kiev, Czech President Petr Pavel also launched the Aero Vodochody program highlighted As a potential partner: according to this, the F / A-259, which is still in the development stage, can be produced in the Czech-Ukrainian joint production. The Hungarian state, which has the majority, which is in principle opposed to the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, did not comment on this proposal.

Not long after Pavel Talk about it, that they could give Ukraine the earlier, but already existing, F/A-159 of the Czech Air Force. This will not directly affect Aero Vodochody, but it is not yet known if the co-production has been removed from the agenda in the meantime.

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