KALININGRAD. Feb 5 (Interfax-AVN) - A diesel-electric submarine of Project 0636.1, the Ho Chi Minh, built by the Admiralty Shipyards for the Vietnamese Navy has been dispatched to Cam Ranh, a source from the Yantar shipyard told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.
"The Dutch cargo ship Rolldock Star took the submarine onboard on the waterfront of the Yantar shipyard, where the submarine had been stationed as of recently. The cargo ship carrying the submarine has departed from the Kaliningrad port and headed for Vietnam," he said.
A Kaliningrad port spokesman told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday that Vietnamese Navy officers were staying aboard the Dutch ship to accompany the cargo to Cam Ranh, where the submarine would be based. Russia no longer has access to the submarine.
The source said the travel to Vietnam would take slightly more than a month.
The large diesel-electric submarine of Project 0636.1 Ho Chi Minh is the second submarine built for and accepted by the Vietnamese Navy. A similar Dutch vessel, the Rolldock Sea, successfully delivered the first submarine of the series, the Hanoi, to Cam Ranh in December 2013.
Vietnam and Rosoboronexport signed a contract in December 2009 to build six submarines of Project 0636.1 for about $2 billion. The total cost of the project reaches $4 billion considering the construction of training and other infrastructure, arms deliveries and other works. The submarines are under construction at the St. Petersburg Admiralty Shipyards. A training center was opened to coach Vietnamese submariners in Cam Ranh with the assistance from the St. Petersburg NPO Avrora Concern.