Missiles for Vietnam's Molniya account for nearly... 40% of the ship's value

Molniya Project 1241.8 is a class of fast attack missile boats with the strongest anti-ship firepower currently in service with the Vietnam People's Navy.

The fear of Molniya is mainly based on its compact size, very fast maneuverability and especially the fact that it carries 2 to 4 times more anti-ship cruise missiles than a warship of the same type or larger.

Equipped with 16 Kh-35 Uran-E missiles, "Lightning" is capable of disabling enemy warships, transport ships or landing ships with a full displacement of up to 5,000 tons with just a single shot.

If half of the ammunition is fired at exactly one target, it is enough to sink a 10,000-ton destroyer.

Carrying such a large amount of weapons, of course the investment cost for missiles will account for a large proportion of the total cost of the ship.

Project 1242.1 Molniya fast attack missile boat of the Russian Navy.

According to data from the National Creation Wiki website, a Molniya fast attack missile boat of Project 1242.1 (domestic version used for testing in the Russian Navy, identical configuration to Molniya 1241.8 for export) has a unit price of more than 60 million USD.

Meanwhile, based on the unit price of Kh-35 Uran-E missiles sold by the Russian state arms import-export corporation Rosoboronexport at 1.5 million USD/missile, 16 Uran-E missiles are worth up to 24 million USD, which accounts for nearly 40% of the cost of building a ship.

If compared with the unit price of the T-90S main battle tank (estimated at about 4 million USD/vehicle), it is equivalent to having 3 of these tanks lined up along the deck on each side of the Molniya 1241.8 missile ship.

Project 1241.8 Molniya fast attack missile boat pair of the Vietnam Navy.

Obviously, investment costs for the navy in particular and for national defense in general are very large, so it is necessary to calculate them to best suit the needs of use, while promoting deterrence and harmonizing with the allocated budget.

Given the actual situation in Vietnam, the strategy of focusing on this class of small, light but powerful warships proves to be the right direction to build a solid defense position for the islands.

According to Baodatviet