The Party, State, government and Defence Ministry are steadfast in developing the defence industry and improving military combat capacity, especially the naval and air forces, towards building a revolutionary, regular, elite and modern army, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said.

He was speaking at a working session in Ho Chi Minh City on December 6 with the staff of Ba Son Corporation, a Defence Ministry’s unit which is building a batch of six fast-attack missile boats Molniya that use Russian technology.

Designed by the Russia’s Almaz Naval Design Bureau, the Molniya-class boat is able to reach a maximum speed of 70km per hour, destroy fleets of combat ships, landing crafts, escort vessels, and go patrolling.

Each is equipped with an advanced radar system, 16 Uran-E anti-ship rockets with a range of 130km, an automatic single-barrel gun AK-176M, and two 6-barrel guns AK-630M firing 4,000-5,000 rounds per minute as far as 4-5km.

Two Molniya boats, called HQ 377 and HQ 378, were handed over to the Vietnam People’s Navy after four years of assembly.

In the meantime, Ba Son workers are building four others Molniya for delivery by the second quarter of 2015 and the second quarter of 2016.

Ba Son Corporation is also building patrol, reconnaissance, search-and-rescue and tug boats ordered by the naval and coast guard forces.

The PM hailed the corporation for successfully building the two first Molniya boats, adding that it demonstrates affirmatively Vietnam’s ability to master advanced military shipbuilding technology.

“To maintain peace and stability, we must be stronger in terms of politics, economics and defence. We need to push for a developed defence industry and step by step master cutting-edge military technologies,” he stated.

The Government leader pledged all possible support for the corporation to relocate away from the city and build another shipbuilding plant.-VNA