Vietnam 'Nearly Owned' Molniya Ship with Moskit Missile?

30 Januari 2019

Moniya with 3M80 Moskit missile (photo : sputnik)

Some sources said that Russia had offered Vietnam a version of the fast-attacking missile ship Molniya Project 1242.1 equipped with Moskit-E supersonic missiles.

Currently in the Vietnamese People's Navy staff there are two classes of Molniya fast-attack missile ships, which are 4 versions of Project 1241.RE carrying 4 P-15 Termit bullets and 8 1241.8 projects (2 ships entering Exported from Russia, the remaining 6 ships in Vietnam built themselves in the country) equipped with 16 Kh-35 Uran-E missiles.

In addition to the above two Molniya variants, Russia and the Project 1242.1 version carry 4 3M80 Moskit supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, which is very powerful, with Mach 3 speed, carrying 280 kg heavy warheads and range of 120 km, enough to sink large ships.

Molniya with 3M80 Moskit missile (photo : MFS)

There have been many questions about why Vietnam did not choose the Molniya 1242.1 version with the Moskit missile but put its faith in the two variants, one of which is Moscow's theory that only agreed to sell the rocket 3M80 only for Beijing.

However, this seems to be inaccurate, because there was a source of information immediately after Vietnam ordered 4 Molniya Project 1241.RE in the early 2000s, Russia offered the Project 1242.1 variant with the Moskit-E missile.

In addition to Vietnam, it was known that Russia also promoted selling similar products to the Turkmenistan Navy, but then their attempts to both customers were unsuccessful. The reason has not been announced clearly but according to the assessment, the main reason lies in the fact that Moskit missiles are too expensive and complicated in operation and maintenance.

3M80 Moskit cruise missile (photo : AusAirPower)

It was not until recently that Russia sold a rocket ship that quickly attacked Project 1242.1 Molniya to the Egyptian Navy, but this was almost "promotion goods" for this North African country because they had bought Moscow's many current weapons.

The fact that the Vietnamese Navy does not have the Moskit supersonic anti-ship cruise missile in the payroll may cause a lot of regret because clearly compared to Kh-35 Uran-E or P-15 Termit, it is many times stronger. .

Even so, we probably do not need to linger too long, because if there is a need to upgrade the Molniya 1241.8 firepower, Russia has made a modernized version of Kalibr cruise missile available with many superiority features.

(BaoDatViet)