Within the next two days all the administrative formalities necessary for the delivery of the boat to the naval forces of Vietnam will be completed. The Da Nang submarine will join the other three of the class Varshavyanka - Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and Haiphong - already in service with the Vietnamese People's Army.
Submarines are equipped with the Club-S missile attack system. All boats are built at the Admiralty Shipyards in St. Petersburg. The other two submarines will be delivered by 2016.
Russia is a historical partner of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the sphere of technical-military cooperation - recalled by the newspaper TASS - in recent years, the two countries have signed contracts worth more than 4,5 billion dollars for the supply of modern weapons.
Vietnam has already bought a flock of 36 Sukhoi Su-30MK2 fighters from Russia, already receiving 26. By the end of the year, the last ten aircraft will reach the Vietnamese People's Army units. Vietnam's annual defense spending is 1,5 billion, equal to 1,8% of GDP.
The Russian Black Sea war fleet
The "Varshavyanka" class diesel-electric submarines within the next two years will equip the Black Sea War Fleet. These submarines represent a key element of Russia's naval strategy in the Mediterranean, where Moscow has recently formed a permanent task force consisting of ten ships of surface.
The construction of the first submarine, the 'Novorossiysk' started in August of the 2010, followed by the "Rostov Na Donu" in November 2011, the "Stary Oskol" in August of the 2012 and the fourth boat, the "Krasnodar" , on February 20th of last year. The 'Novorossiysk' is in service since the 22 August of the 2014. The last two submarines, the Veliky Novgorod and the Kolpino will be completed by the 2016.
The Black Sea Fleet did not receive new submarines from 23 years and operated only with 'L'Alrosa', a 'Kilo' class boat entered into service in the 1990.
The Russian submarines nicknamed by the US Navy as "Black Holes in the Ocean / Black Holes in the Ocean", once immersed, would no longer be identifiable. The "Varshavyanka" classes (Project 636m) are propelled by diesel-electric engines with very low noise emission and can hit targets at long distances without being detected by enemy sonar and radar antisom.
The "Varshavyanka" class is an improved version of the "Kilo" (the latter below five knots is invisible to passive sonar), with advanced stealth technology. It has a displacement of 3.100 tons, reaches a speed of 20 knots, can dive up to 300 meters and carry crews of 52 people.
The submarines, armed with 18 torpedoes, mines and eight "Kalibr 3M54" cruise missiles (NATO SS-N-27 Sizzler), will carry out anti-som missions (Hunter Killer) in relatively shallow waters. All six submarines will be deployed at the Novorossiysk naval base by the 2016.
Franco Iacch
(photo: JSC "Admiralteiskie Verfi")
