On November 28, the Netherlands’ heavy lift transport vessel, Rolldock Star, carrying the fourth Gepard-3.9 frigate for delivery to Vietnam docked at Novorossiysk port in the Black Sea.

Earlier this year, the Vietnam Navy’s third Gepard-3.9 frigate was transported by heavy load carrier Rolldock Star from Russia to Vietnam and arrived at Cam Ranh Port in late October after a 1.5-month journey.

As scheduled, the fourth frigate built by the Gorky Shipbuilding Company based in Zelenodolsk, Russia is destined to arrive at Cam Ranh Port in Khanh Hoa province in mid-January, 2018.

According to Russia’s BusinessOnline, the maintenance of the third and fourth warships will run until May 9, 2018.

In terms of features, the two new warships are similar to the two previous Gepard-class 3.9 frigates. The difference is that the second pair are equipped with anti-submarine weapons (2 torpedo tubes) and other modern devices used for detecting enemy submarines.

Vietnam’s first two Gepard-class 3.9 frigates, the missile escort vessels Dinh Tien Hoang (HQ-011) and Ly Thai To (HQ-012), built by the Rosoboronexport Company at the Zelenodolsk shipyard, were dispatched to Brigade No.162 of Naval Region 4 under the Vietnam People's Navy six years ago.

According to Russian News Agency TASS, Vietnam has been an important partner of Russia in military technology cooperation for the past decades.

Over recent years, Vietnam has signed numerous contracts for weapon procurement from Russia with a total value of more than US$ 4.5 billion.

VOV