The HQ-183 Ho Chi Minh City submarine, the second of six Kilo-class submarines Vietnam has contracted to buy from Russia, entered Cam Ranh Bay in the central province of Khanh Hoa aboard a Dutch heavy lift on Wednesday evening.

>> Kilo-class submarine transferred to Vietnam brigade The submarine will be towed into the Cam Ranh military port after customs and security procedures are completed, which is expected to take two days.  It is now on board the Rolldock Star, the heavy lift that left Kaliningrad’s Yantar shipyard in Russia on February 3, which is anchored in the bay in front of the Hoi cape. This is the second of the six Kilo-class submarines Vietnam is purchasing from Russia under a contract signed in 2009. The first submarine, HQ-182 Hanoi, was transported to Cam Ranh on December 31, 2013. Vietnam and Russia signed a document at Admiralty Verfi Shipyard on January 16 to confirm that HQ-183 had successfully passed its technical tests. The submarine has a load of 2,300 tons and can carry a crew of 57. It can operate at a maximum depth of 300 meters at a range of 6,000-7,500 nautical miles for 45 days and nights. The vessel is armed with a Klub-S cruise missile system with 3M-54E1 missiles bearing 450-kg warheads that have a firing range of 220 km. It also has a system of eight Strela-3 anti-aircraft missiles with a firing range of 6 km, six torpedo tubes, and other advanced military equipment. The flag-raising ceremony for both the first and second submarines is scheduled to take place at the Cam Ranh military port on April 4 of this year. The third vessel, named HQ-184 Hai Phong, is expected to be delivered to Vietnam this November, and the three remaining vessels will be handed over to the Southeast Asian nation in 2015 and 2016.