A steel cutting ceremony was held at the Song Thu Corporation shipyard in Da Nang, which officially launched the construction of the first multi-purpose frigate of Vietnamese design designed for the national fleet. According to Naval News, it has not yet been disclosed how many such ships will be built in total.
The publication recalls that until now, Vietnam has traditionally relied on the USSR, and then on the Russian Federation, to supply military equipment. In particular, already in the 21st century, Hanoi received four Cheetah 3.9 class frigates (Project 11661) and six diesel-electric submarines of Project 636.1.
A model of a new generation Vietnamese frigate
QDND
"However, Vietnam is seeking to diversify its economy, reducing dependence on Russia in order to become more independent in terms of defense weapons," adds Naval News.
The new frigate should receive a high percentage of systems and weapons developed domestically. General Pham Hoai Nam, Deputy Minister of Defense of Vietnam, confirmed this information at the ceremony of cutting the first metal and called on national departments and enterprises to consider this shipbuilding program as a key political task requiring the concentration of all resources and close coordination.
Earlier it was reported that Vietnam is going to build a 4,000-ton 125-meter-long warship based on a heavily modified Russian frigate project 11356P (code "Burevestnik"). However, according to Naval News, these reports turned out to be erroneous, since the displacement of the Vietnamese multipurpose frigate is probably between 2,500 and 3,000 tons. It looks slightly larger than the 2,500-ton ship of the Cheetah 3.9 project, and, according to some sources, its length is about 105 meters.
The technical specifications of the future ship have not yet been officially published, but Naval News reveals some details based on the scale model and visualization presented at the steel cutting ceremony.
It is planned to install a 76-mm cannon based on the AK-176 in the bow, which has already been produced by the Vietnamese factories Z173 and Z125. The image also shows an RBU-6000 type rocket launcher. In the same area there are two eight-barrel launchers for dipole reflectors (and two more at the stern, next to the hangar).
This is followed by a vertical launch system consisting of twelve cells divided into two sets of six cells each. It is unclear what kind of ammunition will fit into these cells, which, according to Naval News, look quite large. The publication suggests that they can accommodate four TLĐK-01 anti-aircraft missiles from Viettel with a range of about 70 km.
There are two twin anti-aircraft missile launchers located above the bridge, probably designed to intercept drones. In the central part of the frigate there are two quadruple launchers for anti–ship missiles, presumably for Viettel's VCM family of missiles. In the same part there are two rotary twin 533 mm torpedo tubes, and closer to the stern there is a pair of 30 mm AK-630M melee systems of local production.
The landing site and hangar involve the use of Ka-28 type helicopters, which are already in operation by the Vietnamese Navy.
