Why is Vietnam building a series of Molniya missile frigates?

According to the plan, the Vietnam Navy will own up to 12 Molniya missile frigates, rising to second place only after the Russian Navy. Why is Molniya so important to the Vietnam Navy?

Unique, powerful

Everyone knows the technical and tactical features of the Molniya missile boat, but in each country or even each unit and even in campaigns and combat, its role and mission can be different.

For the Vietnamese Navy, the Molniya missile frigate is a fast, powerful force, used to attack, divide and penetrate deeply... with the nature of a tactical weapon, but with the counterattack and attack missions of a strategic weapon...

Because when carrying the Kh-35 anti-ship missile, Molniya is a tactical weapon, but when equipped with the Klub-S missile, it becomes a strategic weapon. Of course, when it is a strategic weapon, its goals and missions will also be strategic.

Not only that, Molniya is also the main force, covering important shipping routes in the East Sea when necessary.

This is an extremely powerful, unique, modern means, a standard weapon for asymmetric warfare at sea that Vietnam - a country with an underdeveloped defense industry - can produce in sufficient quantity to meet combat requirements.

Molniya ship number 378 practices live firing

High survivability

In modern warfare, with high-tech weapons, the ability to survive the first strikes of a powerful enemy with modern weapons and equipment is very important.

Because Vietnam's military ideology is self-defense, not aggression, when war breaks out, the enemy will often initiate a preemptive attack. This attack is always unexpected, frequent, concentrated, and often causes a lot of damage to the enemy.

In recent modern wars, most of the defeated countries were hit by preemptive strikes, which resulted in the majority of their forces being destroyed, disintegrated, or rendered incapable of fighting.

Therefore, before the first attack, if 80% of the force is preserved, it is considered a victory in the first stage. At this time, attacking and counter-attacking will have many advantages because the enemy has lost most of its fuel, weapons and ammunition... creating many tactical gaps.

Preserving forces is the first combat action that determines the success or failure of the war. One of those actions is preserving the Molniya missile frigate force of the Vietnamese Navy, which is very feasible.

Molnya's rapid maneuverability allows it to disperse to safe positions, waiting positions, attack and counter-attack positions, eliminating the offensive advantage of enemy cruise and ballistic missiles, avoiding their attacks in the early stages of the war.

Molniya ship number 375, one of two ships built in Russia and transferred to Vietnam

Tactically compliant

Of course, when manufacturing or purchasing any weapon, it is necessary to rely on three main factors. These are geographical advantage; military art and ideology, the preferred fighting style to gain the upper hand in any conditions and to anticipate and predict the enemy's combat plans.

Chinese military experts compare the Molniya “poisonous bee” to their 022 Hubei class “monster” in terms of tactical and technical features. Granted, there is a huge difference in the combat area.

The 022 class missile boat cannot operate for long periods of time far from shore, while the Molniya missile boat can operate almost exclusively on its "home ground" because the strategic goal that needs to be protected is the sovereignty of the sea and islands.

Vietnam's military art is often "using the few to fight the many, using the small to fight the big", but depending on the time, it is still possible to use the small, but many, to fight the big according to the principle of "dispersed forces but concentrated firepower" or attack from many directions on a target...

It can be said that the Molniya missile frigate fully meets and is suitable for the combat art of the Vietnam Navy, and is a very important link for maneuvering and transforming the battle situation.

Molniya is a main force on the sea in its specialty: attacking enemy formations from many directions, in a concentrated, concentrated manner (of course, from the base taking advantage of geographical advantages and cooperating with the air force, coastal missiles...) to tear apart enemy formations.

Two typical raids were the attack on the US Maddox ship on August 2, 1964 by 3 torpedo boats and the attack by 2 MiG-17s on April 16, 1972, which tore apart the formation of the US 7th Fleet.

In each battle, we used a separate "martial art" (there was no coordination between the air force and the navy), although it was still very primitive and lacked internal strength, but it contained great power and danger, and was a formidable challenge to any force, especially when the commander was creative and used all internal strength.

Those are the near-shore airports for the modern Su-30 to take off from, coordinating operations with the Molniya "lightning bolt" to carry out raids...

With their intelligent, creative, and courageous fighting style, the Molniya missile frigate force will become a nightmare for any “blue water navy”. As Chinese military experts have called them, they are a “swarm of poisonous bees” in the East Sea.

According to the Highway