Yes, I'll look for the Damen contract announcement, but to give you a quick heads up since this is something that we in Vietnam have been following a lot, the negotiations were mentioned as for 4 ships for a long time, but when Damen actually announced agreement on a contract, it was for 2 ships for 600 million euros.
I'm up to date on Sea Captor, but a 60 km range mentioned as a possibility is not the same as Barak 8 trials where it was tested to 90 km. One is
speculation, the other one is a
fact, that's very different. And still, 90 is much better than 60 right?
Yes, I know that best air defense is in layers, but if 1 missile can take care of 2 or 3 layers in a small ship, that's very nice, isn't it?
Yes, I jumped into saying that should be no problem installing a Brahmos VLS in the deck space dedicated to the RBU-6000s and maybe I was wrong, maybe it needs a little bit of stretching of the ship although we can't confirm either way because we don't have the measurements. Are you happy now? Is that what you wanted to hear?
Here is the announcement, its even in Dutch man, just one correction, its 2 ships for 500 million euros.
http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2013/08/22/nederlandse-werf-bouwt-twee-oorlogsschepen-voor-vietnam I'd like to point out that at the time of the announcement, the Euro was much stronger with respect to the Dollar, so the price in dollars was high (almost $350 million). That would look different now.
Damen Shipyards has reached an agreement with Vietnam for the supply of two corvettes to the Vietnamese Navy, as the Gorinchem yard confirmed today.
The deal, which by the end of this year to be clinched, officially by both countries, the Dutch business community, especially the shipyard of Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS) in Flushing, pose thousand man-years of work.
On the value of the contract does not disclose Damen, but an insider says that is half a billion euros. The Dutch government is involved in funding.
DAMEN 'HOPEFUL' ON MORE ORDERS
The contract involves the construction of two corvettes of the SIGMA-class, type 9814 - which is a length of 98 meters and a width of 14 meters. The ships have a potent equipment including a Oto Melara rapid fire gun, anti-ship missiles and launch vertically Mica missiles. Within the transaction, Thales Netherlands the intended supplier of electronic equipment, including radar, sensors, fire- control systems and equipment for command and control.
About the building program are no details made public, but it seems logical that one of the two SIGMA's on the Flushing site is being built and the second ship in a Vietnamese shipyard. Damen's been almost twenty years in the Southeast Asian country, where the company five shipbuilding and repair yards and operates a large yard at Haiphong under development. Damen says, to have more Vietnamese orders. Hopeful "
EARLIER CORVETTES TO MOROCCO AND INDONESIA
The purchase of two modern corvettes fits into the ambitious program of modernization of the armed forces of Vietnam in the light of the assertive foreign policy and military rapid expansion of neighboring China. Vietnam and China dispute include the sovereignty of islands in the South China Sea, including large oil reserves are suspected. Vietnam was decades big buyer of Russian arms industry, which is why the supply of Western, Dutch, defense may be called remarkable.
The SIGMA is the export market as a sales success. Previously sold the yard three such corvettes and five to Morocco to Indonesia, in several varieties. More countries have shown interest in naval vessels.
--------------------------------------------------------
Indian members, can you bring up a source that mentions the Barak 8 range increased to 90 km as a result of trials? Mr. Penguin wants to see sources.
@Gen Padmanabhan @MKC @PARIKRAMA @Water Car Engineer
I understand what the Sigma and the Gepard are for, but I also understand the needs of the Vietnamese Navy and the threat they face so I advocate for different ships. The P28 customized for Vietnam as described in the article fits what Vietnam needs much better than the Gepard or Sigma for about the same price.
There are cheaper options just for the role of patrol during peacetime.
In my view Vietnam needs to have a good number of cheap ships such as OPVs (armed with anti ship missiles, etc) for the role of peacetime patrol and a possible face off with the chinese such as with the oil rig episode or what the chinese did in Scarborough Shoal, those episodes don't involve actual fighting. Here the emphasis is on
CHEAP and
QUANTITY with light weapon systems (right now Vietnam does not have a single ship for that role), same goes for the coast guard. Damen is doing a great job for Vietnam with the coast guard ships by the way.
To fight with the chinese, Vietnam needs ships with a lot of firepower, that's why I like that customized P28 for Vietnam. I feel Vietnam needs to use the Israeli concept of small ships armed to the teeth. And Vietnam needs plenty of subs as a priority since they are the only ones that have the best chance to survive and inflict serious losses to the chinese. Vietnam also needs a cheap ship for littoral ASW. In my view, the Molniya ships are the only surface ships in the Vietnamese navy that actually fit the right role so far, even that the hull is a very old design.
The Gepard and the Sigma don't fit either role, too little firepower (especially on air defense which means they can't survive) and too expensive compared to a missile armed OPV (as an example, a Saryu class OPV armed with anti ship missiles). For the price of a Gepard / Sigma, you can build 2-3 such OPVs.
So you understand my view? Feel free to comment.
