Vietnam to arm new Gepard-class frigates with Palma CIWS

The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) Navy will equip its third and fourth Russian-built Gepard 3.9 (Project 11661) light frigates with the Palma close-in weapon system (CIWS), Nudelman Precision Engineering Design Bureau confirmed in a statement issued 22 April.

The PAVN is scheduled to take delivery of the vessels, reported to be anti-submarine warfare (ASW) variants, in 2017. The first two ships in class, Dinh Tien Hoang and Ly Thai Ho , were commissioned in March and August 2011 respectively and loaded with a similar CIWS.

The Palma CIWS consists of Sosna-R hypersonic surface-to-air missiles, two six-barrel AO-18KD 30 mm automatic cannons and the 3V-89 electro-optical multichannel electronic countermeasures resistant fire-control system. The principal control system is electro-optic with radar back-up.

According to company literature, the system can engage six targets at up to 8 km simultaneously depending on the number of firing modules installed. The manufacturer indicates a gun kill envelope of 0.2 to 4 km to an altitude of 3,000 m and a missile kill envelope of 1.6 to 10 km to an altitude of 5,000 m.


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