Notes

* - Denotes aircraft that are combat capable.

+ - Indicates that while exact numbers are not known, it has been reported that the equipment exists.

There is an unusual degree of confusion among sources concerning major equipment holdings. The IISS Military Balance is "authoritative" but students of these things understand that even IISS is confused at times. Flightglobal at least has the benefit of being focused on aircraft to the exclusion of other distractions. The Vietnamese edition of Wikipedia [vi.wikipedia] is at least close to the problem, but it may have fanboy biases, and it is, after all, wikipedia. It lacks clear date stamping, as when it reports the 927 Fighter Regiment as flying the MiG-21, while Scramble reports it now flies the Su-30.

It may also use non-standard nomenclature, as when it reports "So luong hoat dong" [The number of active] aicraft, this may reference intact airframes rather than currently flying or combat capable, though for the Su-22 it does distinguish "145 Khoang gan 100 con hoat dong" [nearly 145, 100 working]. These defects are particularly apparent in the discrepancy between the claimed number of active aircraft and the reported flying squadrons - a total of 250 MiG-21s are reported, but only 2 Regiments reported flying this type. As recently as 2012 IISS reported 7 MiG-21 regiments with 140 aircraft, but by 2013 these numbers had dropped to 4 regiments with 33 aicraft.

The reporting on the helicopter holdings are complicated the Vietnam Helicopter Corporation (VNH), which provides helicopter services for oil and gas offshore operations. While operating on a commercial basis, VNH is a state owned enterprise that is under the auspices of the Vietnam Air Force. Although primarily focused on the offshore industry, it also conducts other helicopter operations, including some conducted in conjunction with the military. It may be assumed that, if needed, these helicopters would be available to the Air Force in the same way that Soviet Aeroflot aircraft were available to the Soviet military.