The Russian destroyer Admiral Panteleyev, with its crew of around 300 led by Colonel Potapov Aleksandr Valerievich, arrived at Da Nang’s Tien Sa Port last Friday to begin a 3-day friendship visit to the city.  The large anti-submarine ship was escorted by the SB-522 tugboat and oil tanker Penchega.

The visit aimed to strengthen bilateral defence cooperation between Viet Nam and Russia.

The Admiral Panteleyev was built at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad and was launched in 1988.  At 163m long and 19.3m wide, the Udaloy-class destroyer has a total displacement of 7,480 metric tons and a range of 19,400km. It has 4 gas turbine engines which allow it to reach a maximum speed of 65kph. 

The destroyer Admiral Panteleyev

The ship is equipped with 8 Rastrub rocket torpedoes, 8 Kinzhal SAM launchers (64 missiles), 533-mm torpedoes, AK-100 and AK-630M gun mounts, RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers, and 2 Ka-27 helicopters. 

As one of the major warships in the Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet, the Admiral Panteleyev is used to detect, hunt, and kill submarines of all kinds.  In particular, the ship was deployed in 2009 as part of operations to combat piracy off the Somalian coast.

The ship’s modern weaponry systems

Later on Friday, Colonel Potapov paid a courtesy to municipal People’s Committee Vice Chairman Phung Tan Viet.  He thanked the city’s leaders for their warm welcome, and expressed his delight at the city’s rapid growth over recent years. 

The stern of the ship

The Russian guest also said he hoped that the visit by the ships would help to boost mutual understanding between the Russian and Vietnamese navies and foster bilateral cooperation in defence and security which will help to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and the world in general.

In reply, Vice Chairman Viet highly applauded the visit by the Russian ships.   He also sincerely thanked Russia for its kind support to his city, and to Viet Nam as a whole, in many ways but especially in training crew members of the new Kilo-class submarines that Viet Nam has bought from Russia.

During their stay in the city, the Russian guests also visited the leaders of the Zone 3 Naval High Command and laid wreaths at the city’s 2 September Peace Monument in memory of heroic martyrs who laid down their lives for the nation.

In addition, they took the opportunity to visit some tourist sites in the city and in Quang Nam Province.