Vietnam's third Russian sub -HQ-184 Hai Phong- to arrive next month

The third of six submarines Vietnam purchased from Russia will arrive early next month, Russian news agency Interfax reported.

The HQ-184 Hai Phong completed testing at sea in Kaliningrad and returned to the St. Petersburg-based Admiralty Shipyards, the submarines' manufacturer, on March 2. Interfax quoted Alexander Buzakov, Admiralty Shipyards’ general director, on Tuesday as saying that the submarine will arrive in Vietnam early next month without specifying how. He added that the HQ-186 Da Nang, the fifth submarine in the contract, will also be launched at the shipyard by the end of the year.

Last March, the HQ 183 Ho Chi Minh City, the second submarine, was delivered to Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Bay by the Dutch-registered cargo ship Rolldock Star. The Dutch delivered the HQ 182 Hanoi, the first of the six subs, to Cam Ranh Bay on December 31, 2013. The six diesel-electric submarines, which are considered improvements over the older Kilo-class, were bought through a US$2-billion deal signed during a visit by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to Russia in 2009. The contract requires Russia to deliver everything by 2016, train Vietnamese crews and supply necessary spare parts.