German frigate Bayern conducts drills with Vietnamese corvette.

According to a tweet published by the German Navy on January 9, 2022, the German Brandenburg-class frigate Bayern conducted drills with Vietnamese Project 1241.8 (Molniya) fast-attack missile corvette.
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Project 1241.8 (Molniya) fast-attack missile corvette HQ-83 (Picture source: German Navy)

Project 1242.1 and project 1241.8 Molniya are further developments of the Tarantul family of ships.

The two projects have been modified and rearmed with modern missile systems like the Uran-E and are more capable ships than the Tarantul types. The ships are built by the Russian Vympel Shipyard.

Russia received at least one boat for trials in the 1990s and in 1999 Vietnam ordered two vessels.

Vietnam is currently the main user of the Molniya class, with two Russian-made ships and six locally built ships. Vietnam started its own production line of 1241.8 Molniya ships with the assistance of Almaz Central Design Bureau in Russia.

The first two locally built ships were delivered in July 2014, two more in June 2015, and the last two in October 2017. The Vietnamese ships are armed with an AK-176 76mm gun, 16 Uran-E anti-ship missiles, four Igla-M air defense missiles, and two AK-630 close-in weapon systems.

The Vietnamese ships are also larger at 56.9m in length and have a maximum displacement of 563 tons. They have a range of 1,700 nautical miles (3,100 km; 2,000 mi) with 44 crew members on board.