Three Polish warships of the Vietnamese Navy

Not counting the 6 Polish SAR ships that are about to be built for the Coast Guard, the Vietnamese Navy already has 3 warships originating from this country.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute - SIPRI, during the period 1979 - 1980, the Vietnamese Navy received 3 used Polnocny-B - Project 771 ships donated by the Soviet Union. This is a class of medium landing ships designed by Poland in cooperation with the Soviet Union and started production in Poland since 1967.

The Vietnamese Polnocny-B fleet is numbered from 511 to 513. Basic specifications include length 73 m; beam 9.02 m; draft 2.3 m; full load displacement 834 tons; crew 37 (including 4 officers).

The heart of the ship is two Kolomna 40-D twin-screw diesel engines made in the Soviet Union with a capacity of 4,400 horsepower, giving a maximum speed of 18.4 knots (33 km/h), and a maximum range of 1,000 nautical miles.

Polnocny-B Landing Ship - Project 771 of the Vietnam Navy

The Polnocny-B is designed in a traditional style with a bow that has two large, arched doors that can be opened to allow vehicles to enter or exit, and a ramp to facilitate landing on the beach.

Compared to Western landing ships, the Polnocny-B is much smaller in size and does not have a helicopter landing deck. However, it is still capable of carrying a relatively large number of tanks, armored vehicles and marines inside the compartment.

The amount of vehicles and soldiers that Polnocny-B can carry includes 6 BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, or 6 BTR-60 (or BTR-80) armored personnel carriers, or 5 PT-76 light tanks and more than 100 marines with full weapons and equipment.

"Fleet" of 3 Polnocny-B landing ships of the Vietnam Navy

The Polnocny-B's firepower consists of two 30mm AK-230 twin-barrel high-speed automatic guns. In addition to its main mission of air defense, it can also be used for fire support or to suppress surface targets quite effectively.

Next to it are two WM-18A Ogon 140mm multiple launch rocket launchers with 18 rockets used to clear the landing zone for troops. Finally, there are four SA-N-5 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles (naval version of the SA-7), which can be easily upgraded to SA-N-10 (SA-16).

In the near future, the Polnocny-B ships in service with the Vietnam Navy are expected to be replaced by advanced landing ships manufactured by the domestic defense industry with full functions of landing troops, clearing beaches and the ability to deploy attack helicopters.

According to Dat Viet Newspaper