Russia to build new ships for Vietnamese Navy on schedule

The new frigates for the foreign customer will have, in addition to the surface countermeasure systems, antisubmarine warfare equipment

Russian Gepard class frigate of Vietnam People's Navy

JAKARTA, November 6. /TASS/. Two Gepard 3.9 class frigates that Russia is building for Vietnam will be delivered to the customer on schedule - in late 2016, a representative of the shipbuilding company told TASS on Thursday at the Indo Defence international exhibition.

“A couple of such frigates were built for Vietnam in earlier, now the second pair is being built that differs in the weapons and military equipment. The delivery deadline is late 2016,” chief engineer of the Zelenodolsk Design Bureau Yevgeny Matveyev said.

The designer said the new frigates for the foreign customer will have, in addition to the surface countermeasure systems, antisubmarine warfare equipment. “To date, there are no factors for non-fulfilment of the obligations, the shipbuilding is going on schedule,” Matveyev said.

The construction of the second pair of the Gepard 3.89 class frigates with antisubmarine weapons for the Vietnamese Navy continues the work of the JSC A.M. Gorky Zelenodolsk Plant within the framework of international military-technical co-operation. The contract on the construction of the first pair of the warships of project 11661 was concluded in 2005. The plant successfully fulfilled all the building stages - the warships were delivered in 2011.

The new pair of frigates differs from the previous ships by antisubmarine weapons and advanced high-performance propulsion system.

Itar Tass