According to US media, most likely in the near future, Vietnam will buy US air defense systems SeaRAM to equip Molniya missile boat.
Currently, on the Molniya missile boat of the Vietnam Navy are only equipped with the variation of short-range missiles and shoulder cannons to AK-630 air defense. In it, artillery AK-630 CIWS are judged to be capable of shooting down cruise missiles.
However, an effective range of short (about 2.5 km), which makes warships could be hurt if the AK-630 can not be shot blocked up, or shot blocked at close range to the boat - can make piece shells name fire has damaged the ship and sailors.
And air defense missile systems can be selected SeaRAM helpful equip Vietnam warships, combat missions, the goal is to intercept cruise missiles.
Air defense missile system close range Raytheon SeaRAM been developed based on the system flak system Phalanx CIWS Mk highway-15 Block 1B capital being US Navy ships equipped for this country.
Regarding the overall design, the Phalanx CIWS and SeaRAM are almost identical, the only difference is the whole only M61A1 Gatling gun combinations Phalanx CIWS 20mm of being replaced by a combination of 11 missile launch tubes on the flagship room RIM-116.
The missile is guided by radar and optoelectronic capital built on similar SeaRAM Phalanx CIWS.
SeaRAM can also be considered a miniature variations of air defense missile systems RIM-116 is the US Navy and its allies entered service since the early 1990s to date.
Unlike SeaRAM, its predecessor is the RIM-116 is equipped with up to 21 surface-to-air missile and the relatively larger size, but it does not use radar or optical-guided navigation system pink foreign built above SeaRAM available.
The surface-to-air missile RIM-116 and weighs approximately 73.5kg SeaRAM and equipped with a warhead weighing 11.3kg fragment length 2.8M can fly close to the speed of 2x speed of sound.
An effective range of up to 9km RIM-116 and can be guided in many different modes.
(Soha)