TUOITRE - Vietnam’s first locally-made artillery ship TT400TP was formally unveiled last week at the wharf of Hong Ha ship-building plant or state factory Z173 in the northern city of Hai Phong, marking a new step in the country’s defense industry.

On the morning of September 27, Colonel Nguyen Van Dac, political commissar of the Hong Ha ship-building plant, received a phone call saying: “Dear political commissar, all weapons and equipment on the battleship successfully shot their targets.”

He immediately informed the good news to others in happy tears.

Thousands of staff, engineers, and workers in the factory have long waited for this historical moment.

“To their surprise, foreign experts said it usually took several times for a newly-made battleship in their countries to successfully hit a target. But this made-in-Vietnam ship opened fire accurately on its first time,” Dac proudly said.

After being appointed as director of factory Z173 seven years ago, the only concern of Nguyen Van Cuong was whether to manufacture a battleship or buy one from foreign countries.

Save up to 90%

Two years later, the factory’s management board decided to build a modern battleship by themselves from preliminary design and weapons bought abroad.

“This ship just costs us around US$1 million while a similar battleship on the global market costs up to US$10 million. So we save up to 90 percent,” Cuong said.

Hundreds of the best engineers in the factory had been trained abroad for three years to learn technologies needed to build the ship, Cuong added.

Local engineers and workers are working together to build the artillery ship  TT400TP - (the coutersy photo)

The artillery ship TT400TP was unveiled on September 27 - (the coutersy photo)

The artillery ship TT400TP test-firing

The interior inside the ship

The TT400TP was created to undertake four missions: wipe out all enemy battleships, protect army bases of landing crafts, protect civilian vessels, and for patrolling purposes.

The ship, which is 54.16m long and 9.16m wide, has a maximum speed of 32 nautical miles per hour. It is able to continuously operate offshore for 30 days and nights at sustained winds of force 9 and waves of force 8. The ship has an operating range of 2,500 miles.

This will contribute to strengthening the naval force and mark a new step in Vietnam’s technology of warship building to contribute to the protection of national sovereignty, said Colonel Cao Hoa Binh, chairman of the Naval Technology Department.