Vietnam Considers Integrate Kh-35 for Svetlyak after Upgrading Pohang

26 Desember 2019

Vietnam Navy has 6 Svetlyak patrol boat from Russia (photo : KienThuc)

Based on the experience gained from the integration of Kh-35 Uran anti-ship missiles for Pohang, Vietnam can mount them on Svetlyak.

Recently, photos have been shown showing both the anti-submarine protection vessels bearing the number 18 and 20 Pohang class that Korea transferred to the Vietnamese Navy underwent a power upgrade.

Specifically, the ships were added two KT-184 launch tubes of the Kh-35 Uran-E submarine destroyer cruise missile to the space behind the ship, near the light-weight torpedo tube assembly 324 mm.

Svetlyak with Kh-35 anti ship missile (graphic : BaoDatViet)

Thanks to the addition of new weapons, the Vietnam Navy's Pohang-class submarine hunting guard ship has "transformed" into an extremely powerful multipurpose rocket ship, well performing both anti-ship, anti-submarine and fire support roles forces at sea and clearing landing areas.

The reason the Vietnamese People's Navy has to study the integration of Kh-35 anti-ship cruise missiles for Pohang-class submarine-hunting corvettes is because in modern warfare, this weapon is indispensable due to gunboats and fishermen. The mines have a short effective range and the probability of killing the target is not high.

In addition, the number of missile ships of the Vietnamese Navy is currently not much, so if increasing the scale, it will help our combat capacity increase many times compared to today.

Pohang 20 with Kh-35 anti-ship missile (photo : Kien Thuc)

The problem now is that after the Pohang class, we can also integrate Kh-35 Uran-E anti-ship missiles to any other class of warships, especially when we have accumulated the following experience upgrade process on.

The answer will most likely be the Svetlyak 400-ton patrol boat - Project 1041.2 because this is the easiest option to deploy when Russia has designed for it the configuration of anti-ship missiles with the name Project 1041.1.

The deployment method is also quite simple, when just adding the fire control radar Garpun-Bal on the top of the radar tower to get the element to shoot for the rocket, the space behind the ship is completely suitable for the launcher KT-184 of Kh-35 Uran.

Besides Svetlyak, the TT-400TP patrol boat can also upgrade anti-ship missile fire in the same way because there are many similarities between the two classes of ships. If the above plan is implemented, it can be said that the strength of the Vietnamese Navy will soar compared to today.

(BaoDatViet)