US: Warship Vietnam wants to buy is 'genius design'
The American magazine The Drive has praised the design of Russia's Project 22160 corvette carrying Kalibr and Shtil-1 missiles as a "genius design".
America praises Project 22160 as a "genius" design
The latest generation of Russian corvettes (also known as light corvettes) of Project 22160 (Project 22160) has a “genius” design, ensuring enough firepower for a small-sized ship. This comment was made in an analysis by the American publication, The Drive.
The primary mission of the frigate is to protect territorial waters, fight piracy, as well as support interactions with larger frigates, destroyers or smaller missile boats during combat.
The article emphasizes that the ship is built on the modular principle, so the armament and equipment installation for project 22160 can be changed depending on the mission at each time, such as fighting pirates or supporting large-scale attack campaigns.
On board, in addition to the installation of the standard A-220M 57mm cannon with a range of 12km, two remotely controlled 14.5mm heavy machine guns and a DP-65 anti-landing grenade launcher. The free space in front of the helicopter deck can be used to install two Kalibr-NK missile systems (export version is Club-K).
At the same time, the Project 22160 ships can operate autonomously for 2 months without refueling. During this time, the ships can travel a distance of up to 6,000 nautical miles. The author of the article said that this will allow small patrol boats to attack targets at great distances at sea and on land with eight Kalibr-NK cruise missiles.
According to military experts at The Drive, the prototype is quite innovative with stealth capabilities and very good weapon integration, worthy of study and learning by Western naval forces. It could become a source of inspiration for their multi-purpose warships.
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| The US praises Russia's Project 22160 stealth warship as an advanced design. |
Also commenting on this issue, Russian military expert, retired colonel Viktor Litovkin, said that Project 22160 ships have superior characteristics and "unlimited" power shown in the design.
The design of the ship is stealthy, without edges to reduce radar reflection range. In addition, this design is not only decorative, but also allows the ship to reach very high speeds. Project 22160 ships have a sea speed of up to 27 knots, very high maneuverability, helping the frigate to complete all combat missions effectively.
Mr. Victor Litovkin said the ship is also equipped with extremely modern and powerful weapons, including 30mm AK-630 automatic cannons, which can actually cut enemy ships in half.
The ship is also equipped with Kalibr-NK cruise missiles with an anti-ship range of up to 660km and a land attack range of 2,500km. The ship also has a VLS 3S90E vertical launch system behind the main gun, using Shtil-1 medium-range air defense missiles, with a launch range of 50km.
For such a small warship to be equipped with such terrible weapons, it was a great achievement for military ship engineering.
The long-range modular patrol ships of project 22160 are designed and assembled for the Navy at the Zelenodolsk shipyard. It was previously announced that by 2020 the Black Sea Fleet will receive four ships of project 22160: Vasily Bykov, Dmitry Rogachev, Pavel Derzhavin and Sergei Kotov.
Project 22160: New opportunities for Vietnam's shipbuilding industry and navy
The fact that Russia is currently massively developing small warships carrying cruise missiles and modern Western-style air defense systems is a great opportunity for Vietnam to rapidly upgrade its surface fleet.
It is known that recently, both Russian and Vietnamese media have said that Vietnam will not continue to buy Gepard 3.9 frigates from Russia and will choose to buy another type of ship with a smaller or equivalent displacement, but with stronger firepower with Kalibr cruise missiles.
Experts have selected a number of Kalibr missile-carrying ship configurations suitable for Vietnam, such as the Buyan-M class light frigate Project 21631, Project 22800 (950 tons), Karakurt class (800 tons); Project 20380 Soobrazitelny frigate, Gremyashchy class Project 20385 frigate (2,200 tons)...
However, the Buyan-M and Karakurt light frigates have very poor air defense capabilities and are not Vietnam's top priority. Therefore, the Project 20385 and Project 22160 frigates will be Vietnam's top choices; of which Project 22160 is the most promising candidate.
Project 22160, designed by the St. Petersburg Design Bureau and built by the Zelenodolsk Shipyard, is Russia's first modular patrol/escort vessel. The Project 22160's components will be built separately and then assembled into a complete vessel.
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| Russia's development of Project 22160 modular ships is an opportunity for Vietnam. |
The modular design reduces construction time and makes it easier to upgrade to more modern standards, while also allowing for custom displacement. There are currently three main types of frigates: 1,300, 1,500, and 1,800 tons, while patrol boats can be built smaller.
Project 22160 is a very notable choice because the price is not much more expensive than the Molniya-class missile boat Project 1241.8 (560 tons displacement) - which we have purchased a technology transfer license from Russia and produced domestically - but has much stronger firepower.
In the near future, when Vietnam's warship building technology makes new advances, we can completely negotiate with Russia to receive technology transfer and domestically produce surface ships built using advanced modular methods.
If Russia transfers technology, Vietnam can both build medium-sized warships with integrated air defense and long-range attack capabilities (both Kalibr and Shtil-1), build light frigates carrying Kalibr missiles to replace Molniya-class missile boats, or build small, high-speed patrol boats.
In addition, the fact that many factories can participate in the process of building ship modules also helps Vietnam improve the level of surface shipbuilding in the shipbuilding industry, increasing the number of military shipyards with access to advanced technology.