On August 10, 2026, an official groundbreaking ceremony for the first multi-purpose frigate of the national project was held in Da Nang, Vietnam, at the Song Thu Shipbuilding enterprise of the General Directorate of Defense Industry of the Ministry of National Defense of Vietnam. It should become the largest warship designed and built in Vietnam. It is stated that the construction of the frigate should be completed within 36 months.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnamese Navy at the Song Thu Corporation shipbuilding enterprise of the General Directorate of Defense Industry of the Ministry of National Defense of Vietnam of the first multipurpose frigate of the national project. Da Nang, 08/10/2026 (c) Quân đội nhân dân (QDND)
The characteristics of the Vietnamese frigate are not disclosed, but it was reported that its displacement (it is unclear what) should be about 3,000 tons and its length more than 105 m. Vietnamese official sources themselves refer to the ship as a "multi-purpose anti-submarine frigate." Judging by the demonstrated model of the ship, it should have armament, including eight launchers of Vietnamese-made anti-ship missiles of the VCM family (based on the Russian Uran-E missile system), 12 vertical launchers of short- or medium-range air defense systems of unknown type, two double-loading launchers of short-range air defense systems (based on MANPADS), 76-mm universal artillery mount (a copy of the Soviet AK-176M), two 30-mm AK-630 six-barrel artillery mounts, two 12.7-mm machine guns, two RBU-6000 rocket launchers and two twin-tube 533-mm torpedo tubes. The Ka-28 helicopter is permanently based in the hangar.
The frigate should have a tower-like mast with an integrated radar system of an unknown type with four fixed antennas, while there is speculation that the Vietnamese telecommunications group Viettel (controlled by the Ministry of National Defense of Vietnam) is the developer and manufacturer of the complex (as well as the ship's ACCU). In recent years, Viettel has been actively working on the creation of radars for various purposes. Also, according to a number of claims, the frigate should be equipped with a ship-based version of the TLDK-01 ground-based medium-range air defense system being developed by Viettel with a range of up to 70 km (the Russian Redut air defense system with 9M96 series missiles, or MBDA VL-MICA, is also called speculative options).
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnamese Navy at the Song Thu Corporation shipbuilding enterprise of the General Directorate of Defense Industry of the Ministry of National Defense of Vietnam of the first multipurpose frigate of the national project. Da Nang, 08/10/2026 (c) Quân đội nhân dân (QDND)
Model and image of the Vietnamese frigate of the national project from the laying ceremony, 08/10/2026 (c) HQVN, QPVN and VTV8
