Vietnam to add 2 locally-built warships to naval fleet this quarter

The Vietnam People’s Navy will add two warships to its fleet in the next two months following the recent successful test run of two fast-attack missile ships of the Molniya class, the first of its kind to have been built locally, according to government website chinhphu.vn.

The two warships, HQ379 and HQ380, have been accepted by a joint council made up of Ministry of Defense and Vietnam People’s Navy officials after the test run.This is the second patch of a series of six such missile warships designed on the basis of a Russian version in accordance with an agreement over technology transfer signed by Vietnam and Russia in 2009, chinhphu.vn reported.They will be officially added to the country’s naval fleet within this quarter, chinhphu.vn said.Like the first two Molniya-class missile warships, which are equipped with advanced weapons and state-of-the-art functions, the latest duo were built at the Ba Son shipyard under the General Department of Military Industry.

They can operate at sea for 10 straight days despite winds as strong as 74kph and are able to attack targets both in the air and in the sea, chinhphu.vn said.Compared to an older Russian version of its kind, the new vessels have a more modern engine system.The ships are designed to destroy teams or groups of warships, amphibious ships, corvettes, and other enemy fleets independently.
They can also help protect submarines and amphibious ships, and perform reconnaissance missions at sea.In addition to a modern radar system that can track targets accurately, each of the warships is equipped with 16 sea-to-sea Uran-E missiles arranged into four modules for launch on its sides with a range of 130 kilometers.
Each of them has two AK-630 ship-borne artillery systems with 4,000 shells each, which can fire 4,000-5,000 shots per minute at a range of 4-5 kilometers, and an AK-176M automatic gun having a range of 15 kilometers for sea and land targets and 11 kilometers for air targets, according to chinhphu.vn.

The first two Molniya-class warships, HQ377 and HQ378, were handed over to the Vietnam People’s Navy in July last year.
The last two will be given to the navy in the second quarter of 2016.
Besides the Molniya-class shipbuilding program, the Ba Son shipyard is also building patrol boats, reconnaissance ships, search and rescue vessels, and tugboats for the Vietnam People’s Navy and the Vietnam Coast Guard.