Vietnam installs Kh-35 Uran-E anti-ship missiles on Pohang-class corvette

The VPN corvette 20 with the Kh-35 missile launchers. Photo c/o VietDefense.

The Vietnam People’s Navy (VPN) has domestically installed two quadruple Russian Kh-35UE Uran-E anti-ship cruise missile launchers on its Pohang-class Flight III corvette.

Photos of the ship with the said missile launchers were posted in social media by Vietnamese defense pages.

According to Vietnamese English-language defense page VietDefense, the unnamed Pohang-class Flight III corvette with hull number 20 was the only one that received the upgrade together with the installation of a Russian fire control radar, while the other Pohang-class corvette in VPN service, the unnamed Flight III ship with hull number 18 was not installed with the same upgrade.

This makes the Vietnamese Pohang-class Flight III ship to be armed with anti-ship missiles, as they were originally made by South Korea without one. Other Pohang-class Flight III ships are operated by the Philippine Navy and the Egyptian Navy.

It is also possible that the missiles to be used are actually Vietnamese license-built version of the Russian 3K24E Uran-E missile called the KCT-15, which was a product of technology transfer agreement between Russia and Vietnam between 2011 and 2012.



[1] VietDefense
[2] Navy Recognition