Factory A32: From wartime workshop to Vietnam’s fighter jet maintenance hub

Once built from scratch, the factory, under the Air Defense - Air Force Service, is currently among the few units in the world capable of conducting life-extension work on modern fighter jets, including the Su-30MK2.

Located in Da Nang City, central Vietnam, Factory A32 specializes in the repair, maintenance, and life extension of combat aircraft, as well as the production of aviation materials.

It is set to mark its 60th anniversary in June.

Early foundations of Vietnam’s aviation engineering

A32’s history reflects Vietnam’s broader development in military aviation engineering, shaped by wartime pressures and decades of technical progress.

In his office at the factory, Colonel Pham Ba Nguyen, director of A32, keeps photographs and artifacts that capture this long institutional journey of one of the world’s modern military aircraft maintenance facilities.

A former military lecturer, he now leads a unit he describes as central to Vietnam’s efforts to master complex aviation technologies.

Nguyen said many operators of Russian-made fighter jets still rely on foreign partners for major maintenance, while Vietnam has gradually developed its own capability in this field.

By early 2026, only a limited number of countries outside Russia were capable of conducting deep maintenance and life-extension work on advanced Russian aircraft, with Vietnam among them, he added.

A32 has played a key role in extending the operational lifespan of Vietnam’s Su-30MK2 fleet.

From foreign training to domestic repair capability

The foundations of this capability date back to 1955, when General Vo Nguyen Giap established the Aviation Research Committee to support national defense needs.

A year later, 186 officers and soldiers were sent to China for training in MiG-17 maintenance, forming the early core of Vietnam’s military aviation engineering workforce.

As the air force expanded in the early 1960s, a lack of domestic repair facilities meant aircraft often had to be sent abroad for overhaul, causing delays and operational difficulties.

To address this gap, Vietnam established its first aircraft repair workshop, A33, at Bach Mai Airport in Hanoi on April 10, 1961.

A pivotal moment came in September 1963, when a Laotian pilot flew a U.S.-made T-28 aircraft to Hanoi as part of a planned defection to join Vietnamese forces, giving Vietnamese engineers a rare opportunity to study a foreign platform directly and improve their technical skills through hands-on work.

Wartime repairs under fire

On June 18, 1966, the Air Defense - Air Force Command established Unit C17 under A33 as a specialized jet repair force, initially comprising 95 personnel.

Tasked with repairing heavily damaged aircraft beyond the capacity of smaller workshops, C17, the predecessor of Factory A32, marked a key step forward in Vietnam’s aviation maintenance capability.

Operating under the constant threat of airstrikes by U.S. troops, the unit was repeatedly forced to relocate and work in makeshift conditions with limited equipment.

Despite these constraints, Vietnamese engineers completed their first combat aircraft repair in October 1966, restoring a MiG-17 bearing serial number 3201.

The work was carried out at Gia Lam Airport in Hanoi while personnel simultaneously built protective shelters.

Between 1967 and the end of the war, mobile repair teams worked under bombardment to return damaged aircraft to combat readiness.

In the first five months of 1967 alone, they repaired seven aircraft from Regiment 923, enabling their return to frontline service.