Quietly designing military ships

"They make… fake things, but we have to be real," Colonel - Dr. Pham Quang Chien (Director of the Military Ship Design Institute) joked and added: "We have researched and designed many, many river and sea equipment, but our superiors have not yet allowed them to be announced. They are military secrets."

SN-1000 submarine hunter model researched and designed by the Military Ship Design Institute

Vietnam's submarine hunter

Multi-purpose troop transport ship HSC-60 (17 tons, maximum speed of 40 nautical miles/hour, carrying 22 people) has been equipped for the Navy.

In the traditional room of the Military Ship Design Institute, many models of ships and floating vehicles produced in Vietnam are displayed. Most notable is the model of a submarine hunter, equipped with strong firepower (AK-176 main gun, anti-submarine rockets, anti-submarine torpedoes, anti-aircraft missiles...). Colonel - Dr. Pham Quang Chien introduced: "The SN-1000 submarine hunter was designed by the Institute. The product belongs to the Ministry of National Defense 's project on researching and designing submarine hunters suitable for Vietnam's sea and island combat conditions".

In Vietnam, the oldest class of anti-submarine ship in operation is the Petya class, produced by the Soviet Union in the 1960s, and entered service with the Vietnamese Navy in the 1980s. The ship with the newest and most modern anti-submarine configuration is the Gepard 3.9, built by Russia to order and delivered to Vietnam in 2011 and 2017... Although ranked "sir", converted and equipped with many modern weapons and equipment, or "young men" with many "big toys", these anti-submarine ships are still built by foreign countries.

Meanwhile, the SN-1000 submarine hunter is entirely a Vietnamese product, suitable for sea and island conditions as well as the Navy's combat requirements. The ship's basic parameters are clearly stated: full load displacement is 935 tons; maximum speed is 28 nautical miles/hour (over 51 km/hour); operating range is 3,500 nautical miles; can withstand level 8 waves and level 10 winds...

Regarding landing ships, in addition to the 150-ton multi-purpose transport ship (full load displacement of 297 tons; maximum speed of 11 nautical miles/hour; operating range of 300 nautical miles; carrying capacity of 150 tons of cargo/2 T54 tanks/60 soldiers) that has been built and equipped for Military Regions 4, 5, 7, 9... The Military Ship Design Institute also launched the 550-ton landing transport ship (VDB-550), which can carry many tanks and armored vehicles, and has been equipped for Brigade 649 of the General Department of Logistics.

Officers of the Military Ship Design Institute check the operation of new equipment installed on combat ships of Naval Region 2.

Unmanned vessels

The Military Ship Design Institute was established on March 30, 2009, with the mission of designing, building and converting military ships, vessels and watercraft; conducting scientific research in the field of shipbuilding; advising superiors on state management in military shipbuilding...

Up to now, the Institute has designed 19 types of ships with nearly 100 newly built ships. For example, the types of standing militia flotilla ships; 550-ton amphibious transport ships; 3,000-ton oil tankers... In particular, the success of the Ministry of National Defense-level project on researching and designing anti-submarine ships suitable for Vietnam's sea and island combat conditions and the task of designing conversions to install missiles on military ships, is a solid foundation for the Institute to be ready to design combat ship types suitable for new combat conditions.

Launching of Coast Guard reconnaissance ship

Molniya-class missile ship, newly built by Ba Son Corporation, practices firing missiles at sea

Roro 5612 landing ship (newly built by Song Thu Corporation) on duty in Truong Sa waters

Along with consulting on over 40 projects and proposals (notably the Project to build a permanent militia fleet to participate in protecting sea and island sovereignty in the new situation), the Military Ship Design Institute also provides technical support for units, with outstanding products (published), such as: technical support for live ammunition firing; tank compartment flooding warning on ships; whole ship monitoring; hydraulics on anti-terrorism armored vehicles...

"We are focusing on mastering the design of modern auxiliary ships, moving towards designing highly complex combat ships," said Colonel - Dr. Pham Quang Chien and revealed: "We have been researching, designing and manufacturing new weapons and technical equipment to meet modern combat requirements, focusing on unmanned water vehicles"... (to be continued)

Capable of designing combat ships to protect islands and seas

When it was first established, the Military Ship Design Institute faced many difficulties. With the attention of superiors, the Institute gradually invested in infrastructure, specialized design software, laboratories for weapons and equipment, automatic control, ship engines, mechanics, etc.

Along with that, the Institute organizes the selection and requests superiors to mobilize engineers who have graduated from domestic and foreign schools with majors in hull, machine, electricity, weapons and equipment design to work; regularly sends staff to participate in a number of technology transfer projects in military ship design and construction from abroad; access and master modern ship design software... Up to now, 50% of the Institute's technical research staff have been thoroughly trained in ship design, weapon and equipment integration, automatic control...

Over 70 scientific research topics of the Institute, including the state-level topic on "Research, development, conversion of mobile oil and gas rigs to serve the marine economy and national security and defense" belonging to the project cluster "Research on basic design, details, and integrated manufacturing technology of 400ft self-elevating rigs suitable for Vietnam's conditions and research and development of conversion of mobile oil and gas rigs to serve the development of the marine economy and national security and defense" was awarded the State Prize for Science and Technology (2021).

Some topics were highly appreciated by the Ministry of National Defense, affirming that the Institute has enough capacity to design warships suitable for combat conditions to protect islands, such as: "Research and design of submarine hunters suitable for combat conditions of islands in Vietnam"; "Manufacture of rescue boats with the capacity of carrying 1 infantry squad using PPC material"; "Design of equipment complex to serve testing of watertight assembly of propeller shaft of Kilo submarine at the workshop"...

Colonel Ho Van Chau, Party Secretary of the Military Ship Design Institute

Some ships are built domestically.

Ba Son Corporation under the General Department of Defense Industry is the only high-tech combat shipbuilding unit in Vietnam, having built many types of gun-missile ships for the Vietnam Navy, such as: the first pair of gun-missile ships TP.01 and TP.01M of Vietnam, currently in service with Brigade 127, Naval Region 5; BPS-500 class anti-ship missile patrol ships; Molniya class missile ships (1241.8) currently in the combat formation of Naval Region 2 and Region 4.

Factory Z173 (Hong Ha Shipbuilding Company Limited) has also successfully built the TT-400TP gunboat class based on the preliminary design purchased from abroad. 6 gunboats newly built by Z173 are currently in the fleet of Naval Regions 2 and 3.

Z189 factory builds new ships: Large patrol (CSB-8001, 8004); small patrol (border guard ST-112, BP-98, customs patrol HQ-75, coast guard TT-120, combined search and rescue patrol CN09, armed fishing boat 734, naval high-speed patrol 285, ST-126...); military transport (Truong Sa-571 belongs to the transport ship class K122, ST-194, combined patrol and troop transport ship ST-294A); military medical ship Khanh Hoa-561... In particular, Z189 also builds new multi-purpose submarine search and rescue ship 9316 (Yet Kieu-927, currently in service with the 189th Navy Submarine Brigade), self-healing rescue ship ST-168, submarine rescue ship Stoker and Besant (Royal Australian Navy)...

In addition, the shipyards of the General Department of Defense Industry have also successfully built new Roro 5612 landing ships (Song Thu Corporation) for Brigade 175, Naval Region 5; fisheries surveillance ships (class TK-1482C, class KN-750, class KN-6000, class KN-2011) for fisheries surveillance squadrons; reconnaissance ship TS-500 for Coast Guard Regions 3 and 4...

Most recently, the ships for the maritime militia fleet (the shipbuilder is the Department of Militia and Self-Defense, under the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army), phase 1 was carried out in the provinces of Quang Tri, Quang Ngai, Khanh Hoa, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Kien Giang; Da Nang City...

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tham-lang-thiet-ke-tau-quan-su-185241218202105556.htm