Integrating tank turret for 100-ton Vietnamese patrol boat?

In addition to being brought ashore as a bunker, tank turrets also have another use, which is to be mounted on small patrol boats.

Currently, the Vietnam People's Navy still has a large number of 100-ton patrol boats donated by China since the 1960s.

The characteristic of these ships is that their weapon system is quite primitive, consisting of only 2 manually controlled 37 mm cannons arranged fore and aft.

In addition to limited firepower, gunners on these ships did not receive the necessary protection from enemy lethal weapons, or simply from adverse weather conditions, and manual aiming was also not very effective in combat.

100-ton gunboat of Brigade 170 - Naval Region 1.

In conditions that do not allow the decommissioning of these outdated small ships to be replaced by more advanced types, upgrading them to better meet the requirements of modern warfare is necessary.

The solution of equipping the ship with new naval artillery systems such as AK-176 or AK-630 is not reasonable because it must be accompanied by fire control radar, and the small size of the ship makes integration difficult.

Therefore, the optimal solution that Vietnam should consider is to install tank turrets on these 100-ton ships.

This is also the method applied by many countries in the world, including powerful military powers.

Russian patrol boats use the 100 mm turret of the T-54/55 tank.

The above method is especially suitable for countries that still have many main battle tanks and light tanks that are in a state of long-term storage due to lack of spare parts needed to maintain operations, or simply because they are too outdated to meet the requirements of modern warfare.

Researching the integration of decommissioned tank turrets onto small patrol boats is clearly a good direction to improve their combat capabilities. The cost of modernization is very cheap, easy to convert, while providing superior power, comparable to many new generation patrol boats.

Russian river patrol boat equipped with 76.2 mm gun turret of PT-76 amphibious tank.

If Vietnam intends to carry out the above project, the candidates for modernizing these small patrol boats should be captured 2-series tanks such as the M41 or M48 that are in long-term storage.

The 76mm cannon of the M41 or the 90mm of the M48 is clearly stronger than the current 37mm twin-barreled cannon. The turret also has a built-in aiming mechanism that will help with better shooting, protecting the safety of the operator.

This is a simple solution and really suitable for the actual conditions of Vietnam, so it should be considered for implementation if the requirement arises.

According to Baodatviet