Vietnam's Unique Ballistic Missile Power

15 Maret 2018

It has reported that Vietnamese Army have 24 launchers of Scud ballistic missile (all photos : KienThuc)

Despite being developed in the late 1970s, Scud remains one of the most popular tactical ballistic missiles in the world today, especially its special role in the Artillery Regiment of the Vietnamese Army.

According to unspecified sources, even though it has been in the Army's staff since the 1970s, it is not until 2012 that the Scud missile defense capability of the Army Vietnam has just been published in the People's Defense Magazine.

Currently, all Scud missiles in Vietnam are under the control of the 490th Brigade - Artillery Regiment.

Up to now, a total of 32 countries in the world are using Scud-B missiles, including Vietnam. In addition, four other countries in the world still hold the technology of production of this type of rocket was transferred from the Soviet Union.

An upgraded version of the R-11 (Scud-A), the R-17 is capable of carrying all types of warheads including nuclear warheads, chemical warheads, and conventional warheads.

Initially, the Scud-B missiles were mounted on 2P19 tracked trailers similar to the Scud-A version. However, the later version of the MAZ-543 has been replaced for better maneuverability than the tracked version.

The Scud-B has a total weight of 5900 kilograms, 11.25 meters long and 0.88 meters in diameter. This missile can give a maximum range of up to 300 km.

Maximum speed of Scud-B can be reached up to Mach 5, equivalent to about 1.7 km/sec. Due to the high speed, the accuracy of the Scud-B missile was moderate.

Except for the most up-to-date Scud-D models using DSMAC leading edge navigation, all Scud versions use only inertial navigation systems, so the accuracy is not high. Scud-B version of Vietnam has a maximum target deviation of 450 meters under test conditions.

However, with the ability to carry fusion warheads with a burst of 5 to 80 kilotons, a target deviation of about 400 meters is completely irrelevant because of the explosive size of the warhead of this size.

(Kien Thuc)