Vietnam: State of Submarine Forces in ASEAN 2023 – 5

The fifth ASEAN country submarine force in my series concerns Vietnam.

6 boats incommission 

 

6 Improved Kilo Class (Project 636) submarines 

Ordered 2009

Delivered by 2017

Cost $2 Billion

Displacement 3,000 tonnes

Vietnamese Kilo HQ-186 Da Nang. Image courtesy vnexpress.net
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Vietnam does not detail news of its submarines for PR or taxpayer/defense budget justification purposes that may apply to democracies. So I don’t have much new post-2020 information on Vietnamese submarine force. Here are some articles with older information:

 

Vietnam’s (Russian Speaking) Kilo Submarine Service 

 

Vietnam’s Strategic RelationsCountering China 

 

https://e.vnexpress.net/interactive/2017/vietnams-new-found-submarine-power-and-where-it-came-from

 

https://www.fpri.org/article/2019/11/resist-and-reward-vietnams-naval-expansion/

 

https://medium.com/indo-pacific-geomill/vietnamese-navy-kilo-submarines-77ce5dc97b0b

 

https://thediplomat.com/tag/vietnamese-kilo-submarine/

 

https://www.rsis.edu.sg/rsis-publication/idss/1824-vietnams-new-kilo-class-subma/

 

https://www.cescube.com/vp-vietnam-s-purchase-of-kilo-class-submarines-and-military-modernization

 

The Vietnamese People's Navy (VPN) is ASEAN’s largest submarine operator, having ordered 6 Improved Kilo Project 626 boats in December 2009, with all boats delivered and in commission by 2017. While there was plenty of coverage prior to the commissioning of these submarines, There are no international articles I can find about their current operational service (including in Vietnamese English news sites).

 

Vietnam has a long 3,260km coastline, bordering the Gulf of Tonkin, the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand (see map above). In general Vietnam faces the most PRC SCS greyzone disruption to its activities within its EEZ. Vietnam has also recently discovered the issue of undersea cable communication disruption, with all five data cables connecting Vietnam to the world ‘experiencing issues’. Undersea cables are often broken by fishing and anchoring activities, but tensions in the SCS are becoming more of an issue. 

 

Vietnam’s submarine force is ideally located to target China’s naval and civilian surface ships as well as Chinese submarines in the South China Sea. While the VPN’s Kilos will act as a strong deterrent against PLAN belligerence in the South China Sea, they face two main issues. The first is that China also has the same Kilo submarine models, and the PLAN knows the class well for anti-submarine warfare. The second is that Longpo Naval Base,  400km Southeast of Hanoi, on China’s Hainan Island, is the major fleet base complex of China's South Seas fleet, including its aircraft carrier Shandong, other major surface units, SSBNs, SSNs and SSKs.

 

Vietnam’s Kilos are apparently armed with anti-ship and also land attack versions of the Club S missiles. According to analysts in the region. The land attack missiles represent a significant shift beyond an anti ship, anti sub capability. Land attack is a deterrent complicating China's strategic calculations. These land attack missiles have an official range of 300 km (but probably more) representing a threat a potential threat to China's coastal cities. Vietnam may be the first Southeast Asian country to arm its submarine fleet with a land attack missile. 

Vietnam is now facing increased pressure from the USA to upgrade its relations. Or should Vietnam revert to Chinese suzerainty, forty years after Vietnam fought off the PLA in the bloody 1979 invasion?

Shawn Chung
June 6, 2023