Vietnam Navy Commissions Russian Design, Locally-made Missile Corvettes

Vietnam Navy commissioned two Russian designed and locally made missile corvettes, HQ-379 and HQ-380 into service on Thursday.

The corvettes, built locally by Ba Son Shipyard, are armed with 16 Uran-E missiles of 130 km in range, an AK-176M automatic gun, and two AK-630 ship-borne artillery systems, Thanh Nien News reported today.

The ships are among the six Project 1241.8 Molniya (Lightning) corvettes ordered at Ba Son Shipyard by the Vietnam People's Navy in 2009. The first two, HQ-377 and HQ-378 were delivered last year.

The Vietnamese navy has also used Russian-built Molniya corvettes that were constructed by the Russian Vympel Shipyard.

Vietnam started its own production line of the ships with the assistance of Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Vietnam navy has acquired much Russian hardware over the past few years to strengthen its capabilities. The capabilities include Kilo-class submarines, Gepard-class guided missile stealth frigates and Svetlyak-class fast patrol boats.

The new corvettes will join at Brigade 167 of the navy's 2nd Zone Command, which is in charge of the waters in southern Vietnam from Binh Thuan to Bac Lieu Provinces.