Vietnam Launches First Navy Warship

The Vietnam Navy received its first locally manufactured warship, equipped with artillery and missiles, local press reported. The shipbuilding company Hong Ha began to build the model tested in 2009 and the ship last year.

The project would have been purchased from a foreign company. A senior Navy said the ship will patrol the country's territorial waters, amid rising tensions in the South China Sea. There are ongoing tensions between Vietnam and China on maritime territorial disputes.

Last year, there was a confrontation between a research vessel of oil and gas Vietnamese and Chinese patrol boats, which led anti-China demonstrations in Hanoi. The new vessel is 54m long and has an operating range of over 2,000 nautical miles.

Vietnam has said it plans to build more ships of war in the future. Currently, the majority of its ships come from Russia and the former Soviet Union.