The PM underlined that the Party, State, government and Defence Ministry are steadfast in developing the defence industry and improving military combat capacity, especially the naval and air forces, towards building a revolutionary, regular, elite and modern army.

He highly spoke of the corporation for successfully building the two first Molniya boats which illustrated Viet Nam’s ability to master advanced military shipbuilding technology.

The Government leader pledged all possible support for the corporation to relocate away from the city and build another shipbuilding plant.

The Molniya-class boat was designed by the Russia’s Almaz Naval Design Bureau and is able to reach a maximum speed of 70km per hour, destroy fleets of combat ships, landing crafts, escort vessels, and go patrolling.

Each is equipped with an advanced radar system, 16 Uran-E anti-ship rockets with a range of 130km, an automatic single-barrel gun AK-176M, and two 6-barrel guns AK-630M firing 4,000-5,000 rounds per minute as far as 4-5km.

Two Molniya boats, called HQ 377 and HQ 378, were handed over to the Viet Nam People’s Navy after four years of assembly.

In the meantime, Ba Son workers are building four others Molniya for delivery by the second quarter of 2015 and the second quarter of 2016./.

By Kim Loan