Patrol for Pennies: Vietnam’s DHC-6 Twin-Otter 400s

VPN DHC-6

Canadian firm Viking Air of Sidney, BC achieved a double-breakthrough with its recent sale to Vietnam. Its modern DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 400 variant of the legendary global bush plane will become the Vietnamese military’s first western aircraft, and the Vietnamese Navy’s first fixed-wing aircraft.

While Vietnam has attracted a lot of attention for its recent submarine and fighter deals with Russia, its long coast and large Exclusive Economic Zone interests made its current lack of fixed-wing maritime patrol aircraft a major handicap. The new Twin Otters will be used for transport, resupply, maritime surveillance, and search and rescue throughout Vietnam’s coastal regions. Their short takeoff and fresh water landing capabilities could even make them useful in parts of Vietnam’s interior.

Lines Blur Between Terrorist Organizations and Militias

• The Iron Dome defense system is again proving quite effective, leading Hamas to try other tactics, including launching strikes deeper into Israel, trying commando infiltration by sea, and launching bomb-loaded drones. Hamas reportedly fired more than 1,000 rockets at Israel without inflicting any casualty while close to 200 Palestinians died and more than 1,200 were wounded in the past week. This leaves them with little leverage and fewer options. yet as of Tuesday morning Hamas rejected an Egypt cease-fire proposal that Israel had approved.

• However using a million-dollar PATRIOT missile to shoot down a relatively small drone looks like an expensive solution.

• The Islamic State in Iraq may have successfully expanded its mode of operations from usual terror tactics to something that looks closer to a regular military, but despite its efforts Hamas is finding it harder to do so effectively against a well-trained and disciplined adversary.

• Militias have fired rockets on Libya’s main airport in Tripoli, damaging the control tower and several aircraft. The central government is considering asking for international help as it has clearly been unable to fulfill its core security responsibilities.

• A new report from the CSIS think tank on the state of Afghanistan points out that:

“US and ISAF reporting that minimize the Taliban and other insurgent threat and levels of activity is directly contradicted by a sharp increase in civil casualties on a national and regional level. Violence is sharply intensifying and Afghan forces have so far proved unable to cope.”