Vietnamese Petya III Ship Firing 533 mm Torpedoes

13 September 2019

Petya III submarine hunting corvettes 11 and 09 of the Vietnam People's Navy (photo : BaoDatViet)

Submarine hunting guard ship Project 159 Petya class plays a very important role for the Vietnam People's Navy.

Petya is NATO's designation for the submarine-hunting guard class Project 159 Storozhevoi Korabl These are the first ships powered by a Soviet Navy gas turbine engine. Their role is to combat submarines in shallow water.

The vessel has a standard displacement of 950 tons and up to 1,150 tons at full load; length 81.8 m; 9.2 m width; draft of 2.9 m; crew of 90 people.

The heart of Petya is 2 gas turbines and 1 diesel engine with a total capacity of 36,000 horsepower, giving a maximum speed of 30 knots; operating range of 4,870 nautical miles when running at 10 knots / h, or 450 nautical miles when running at maximum speed.

Petya avionics include Don-2 radar, Slim Net, Hawk Screech, Herkules sonar and embedded dip sonar.

The Vietnamese Navy received a total of 5 Petya ships, including 3 Petya II and 2 Petya III ships in the early 1980s.

In which 2 Petya III with number 09 and 11, each armed with 2 double-barreled AK-726 guns of 76 mm size; 4 RBU-2500 anti-submarine rocket launchers and 1 TTA-53-57 bis three-tube launcher, compatible with SET-53/53M heavy torpedoes.

Submarine-hunting corvettes 09 of the Vietnamese Navy launched torpedoes SET-53M (photo : BaoDatViet)

SET-53 is an anti-submarine torpedo and surface ship of 533 mm size manufactured by the Soviet Union, officially put into service in 1958. By 1964, the upgraded version SET-53M was completed with many Outstanding tactical features. 

This heavy torpedo not only equips large surface ships but also appears on torpedo boats with displacement of only a few hundred tons.

Basic specifications of SET-53/53M torpedo: Weight 1,480 kg; 7,800 mm long; 100 kg warhead; range of 8,000 / 14,000 m; speed of 23/29 knots / h; The working range of the passive probe reaches 600 m.

In addition to the role of the main weapon of the Petya III submarine hunting guard, this torpedo is also installed on the Turya class torpedo boat with 4 single launchers divided into 2 clusters arranged 2 sides.

Compared with anti-submarine torpedoes - the 533 mm TEST-71 surface ship fitted with the Kilo 636 submarine as well as the Gepard 3.9 missile defense ship (second pair), it is clear that SET-53M is much inferior when TEST-71 has a range of 15,000 m if running at 40 knots / h or 25,000 m when running at 35 knots.

In addition, the TEST-71 torpedoes are also equipped with a sonar guidance system combined with receiving control commands via wires so extremely difficult to jam compared to passive probes using the old technology of SET- 53M.

It has been reported for a while that India has implemented an upgrade package on Vietnamese Petya vessels by installing a new generation hydrodynamic navigation device called HMS-X2, most likely Petya III after modernization can also launch TEST-71 torpedoes.

(BaoDatViet)