Vietnam Canceled the Sigma 9814 Project

06 April 2020

Sigma 9814 corvette (photo : KienThuc)

Model of a Sigma 9814 corvette in theoretical Vietnamese service. Aside from accommodating Vietnam's Russian Kamov helicopters, the ship would have been armed with:

- 8x MBDA Exocet MM40 Block 3
- 12x MBDA MICA VL surface-to-air missiles (in VLS)
- 1x Oto Melara 76mm main gun
- 2x Oto Melara MARLIN-WS 30mm guns

Despite negotiations with Damen from 2011-2014 to order 4 corvettes (2 built in the Netherlands, 2 locally built in Vietnam), the plan was ultimately dropped because of one problem: the design's west-bloc weaponry.

Sigma 9814 (image : chungbeo)

Due to historical events, the Vietnam People's Navy has always been east-bloc oriented. Had the Sigma been purchased, Vietnam would have had to go out of the way to buy western cannon ammunition & western missiles for the corvette. Considering Vietnam's history, politics, etc, very few countries would have been willing to sell that to Vietnam. Acquiring Exocet missiles would have been the most difficult.

It wasn't until the transfer of South Korean Pohang-class corvettes that the VPN started using "western-oriented" ships. Even they have been converted for Vietnamese standards, now fitted with Russian missile systems and machine guns.

(VNDefense)