Will Vietnam's new Molniya have Kalibr or Yakhont?

Vympel shipyard has just announced that Vietnam can build four more Molniya 1241.8 ships with new weapon configurations.

After the above information appeared, most experts believed that Vietnam's next generation Molniya 1241.8 would be equipped with Yakhont supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles instead of Kh-35 Uran-E.

First of all, it must be recognized that Yakhont is a missile that uses "older" technology than Kalibr. It is a transitional step between the old generation supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles with massive size, large radar reflection area and infrared exposure level, as well as poor maneuverability, to a new, superior design.

Equipped with a ramjet engine, the Yakhont does not have flexible flight modes at different speed ranges like the Kalibr.

Therefore, to reach a maximum range of 300 km, the missile must climb to an altitude of 14,000 m (at low altitudes, the dense air density causes great resistance, which will make the missile consume fuel very quickly).

If a low-low trajectory is applied from the start, the Yakhont's range will only reach 120 km, and in actual combat conditions this distance will be much shorter.

Molniya 1241.8 missile boat number 376 of the Vietnam People's Navy.

Compared to Yakhont, the Kalibr missile, thanks to its dual-mode jet engine, is capable of flying close to the sea at subsonic speeds in the initial phase, making it almost impossible for the enemy to detect.

During the approach phase, the engine will increase power, pushing the speed up to Mach 2.9. This sudden change makes it impossible for the air defense system on the warship to change state in time to react.

Due to the subsonic flight time, which saves fuel, the Kalibr missile has a compact size, radar reflection area and infrared exposure level are both smaller than the Yakhont because of limited friction with the air.

In addition, the Kalibr missile is also present on the Kilo 636 submarine, which will be the Gepard 3.9 frigate in the future, while the Yakhont has only equipped it with the K-300P Bastion-P shore missile system. Choosing the Kalibr for the newly built Molniya ship also facilitates the work of ensuring technical logistics in the future.

Finally, in fact, in the Russian Navy, Kalibr has been chosen as the main anti-ship missile of both warships as well as future coastal defense systems, while Yakhont is very limited. With the policy of taking shortcuts, equipping the Molniya 1241.8 that is about to be built with Kalibr missiles is considered more reasonable than Yakhont.

According to Baodatviet