Ildar Khalikov takes part in launching Gepard – 3.9 frigate in Zelenodolsk

On April 27, at the Zelenogolsk Gorky Shipbuilding Plant, Tatarstan Prime Minister Ildar Khalikov took part in a solemn ceremony of launching Gepard – 3.9 frigate for the Vietnamese Navy, the first frigate built under the second contract for the construction of this type of ships. 

 “We have in due time and with proper quality fulfilled our obligations to the armed forces of  Socialist Republic of Vietnam, our brothers for many years and decades,” Khalikov said addressing the plant’s employees. He then recalled that Russia and Vietnam cooperated and had common strategic positions.

Deputy Chief of General Staff of Vietnam People's Army Fam Ngok Min noted that the two first Gepard frigates built by the Zelenodolsk plant are in service and perform well. “Our navy officers constantly use them in the sea to defend our territory,” he said.

First Deputy Director General of Zelenodlsk Plant Alexandr Karpov said that the Vietnamese flag would be hoisted on the warship in November 2017. Before then, the frigate will be put through a series of tests, including that with the Black Sea navy. The second frigate of the pair is ready and launched, he added.

He said that negotiations on building a third pair of frigates equipped with a Calibre-K system are underway.

The first contract to build a pair of frigates was concluded in 2006. Zelenodolsk Plant successfully completed all stages of construction, and Vietnam’s flag was hoisted on the first frigate named after Vietnam’s first emperor Dihn Tieb Hoang in 2011.

An intergovernmental contract to build the second pair of frigates was signed in October 2012. A state contract between Rosoboronexport and Zelenodolsk Gorky Plant was signed in February 2013, and a keel-laying ceremony of the second pair of Gepard -3.9 frigates took place in September.

The frigate is designed by the Zelenodolsk design bureau and is made to fight airborne, underwater and overwater enemy, light objects under and above water, install active and passive obstacles, install mines, escort and guard convoys during conflicts, guard and patrol the state border and economic zones, and for other purposes.

Gepard – 3.9 weighs about 2,000 tonnes and is equipped with advanced missile-artillery, aircraft, antisubmarine and radioelectronic weapons, as well as mine and counter-terror weapons.