Vietnam's Tran Hung Dao ship arrives in China for multilateral exercises.
After completing its visits to Japan and South Korea, the Vietnamese Navy's ship 015 - Tran Hung Dao will visit the Zhanjiang base in China.
The Chinese website Sina recently published a series of photos showing the activities of the Vietnamese Navy's missile frigate 015 - Tran Hung Dao in Japan and South Korea.
A Chinese newspaper reported that after conducting military diplomatic activities in two Northeast Asian countries, the Vietnamese warship will visit China before returning home.
It is known that the Vietnamese Navy's frigate 015 - Tran Hung Dao will visit the Zhanjiang base and participate in the joint exercise between ASEAN and Chinese navies from October 21 to 28.
This is a special event aimed at building trust between the navies of Southeast Asian nations and China, with the goal of promoting peace and friendship at sea.
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| Ship 015 - Tran Hung Dao at Yokosuka Naval Port, Japan. |
Sina further reported that the Vietnamese Navy has been modernizing rapidly in recent times, acquiring many modern warships of Russian origin.
Besides the four Gepard 3.9 missile frigates built by Russia, domestic shipyards are also building many new Molniya 1241.8 small fast attack missile boats under technology transfer licenses.
These warships of the Vietnamese Navy have only small to medium displacement but possess extremely powerful firepower, equivalent to many other 3,000-ton ships.
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| Ship 015 - Tran Hung Dao at Jeju, South Korea, participating in the international naval parade. |
Besides building new ships, the Vietnamese Navy has recently been rapidly enhancing its surface fleet by acquiring used warships from foreign countries.
Following the naval parade in Jeju, Vietnam received its second Pohang-class anti-submarine frigate donated by South Korea, which has been given the new hull number 20.The addition of more Pohang-class warships from South Korea would be a necessary replacement for Vietnam, as the Petya-class ships are proving too old and need to be retired.
Although returning home with the Gepard 3.9, according to the plan, ship 20 will not visit the Zhanjiang base and will head straight to Da Nang port.
Finally, Sina reported that Vietnam may soon order another pair of Gepard 3.9 frigates from Russia with a more powerful weapons configuration, possibly carrying Kalibr-NK supersonic missiles.
