The People’s Navy of Vietnam (VPN) received the first submarine rescue ship in a ceremony held at the state-owned Z189 shipyard in Haiphong, a northeastern city on July 30.
This 93 m long ship is named However, Keah (Pennant 927), the Z189 shipyard operated by the Ministry of Defense (MND) was built in cooperation with the Dutch shipyard Damen under the MSSARS 9316 project.
However, Keah Derived from the design of Damen Rescue Ship 9316, it has a full load displacement of 3950 tons, a beam of 16m and a draft of 4.05m. The maximum speed of the ship is about 16 knots, the endurance is 30 days, and the range can reach 4,000 nautical miles.
The multi-purpose submarine rescue vessel was launched in December 2019 and has been undergoing equipment assembly and testing since then. The ship is equipped with a helicopter deck installed at the bow and an A-frame installed at the rear for launching and recovering submarine rescue vehicles (SRV).
However, Keah Equipped with a 10 m long and 3.2 m wide LR11 SRV manufactured by Forum Energy Technologies, a British company. The SRV is operated by two people and is designed to dive to a depth of 600 meters, and can pick up up to 17 people at a time.
According to the company, the LR11 SRV also provides higher power and advanced auxiliary thruster control systems, enabling it to reach underwater speeds of up to 4 knots, enabling it to operate even under high currents. SRV is equipped with a series of advanced sensors, including Doppler velocity logging tool, fiber optic gyroscope, sonar and other depth sensing equipment, which can enhance its navigation and positioning capabilities.
VPN activated its first submarine brigade, the 189th brigade, of which 6 Russian-made 636.1 (Kilo) class diesel-electric submarines were delivered between January 2014 and February 2017.
In addition to Vietnam, submarine rescue ship operators in other regions include Australia, China, Malaysia, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
Xiao Wu
