Vietnam’s Gepard frigate Tran Hung Dao opens high stakes Japan visit.

Vietnam’s frigate 015 Tran Hung Dao has arrived at Japan’s Kure Naval Base for a port visit and exchange programme with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, part of a regional deployment that also includes China and the Republic of Korea. The stopover gives Hanoi and Tokyo a concrete way to deepen their 2018 Joint Vision on defense cooperation while quietly building interoperability in crowded Western Pacific waters.

Frigate 015 Tran Hung Dao, a Gepard 3.9 frigate (GEPARD) of Brigade 162 under Vietnam’s Naval Region 4, entered Kure Port in Hiroshima Prefecture on 7 December as part of a goodwill deployment that is taking the ship from Cam Ranh to China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. The Vietnam People’s Navy delegation, led by Senior Captain Nguyen Vinh Nam, was welcomed alongside at Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Kure Naval Base in a ceremony hosted by JMSDF officers, setting the tone for several days of ship tours, professional talks, and informal engagements between the two navies.
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The ship at the center of this diplomacy, HQ 015 Tran Hung Dao, is one of four Russian-built Project 11661E Gepard 3.9 frigates in Vietnamese service. (Picture source: Weibo Channel @疯子白杨)

Vietnamese officials frame the Kure visit as a practical expression of the Joint Vision Statement on Vietnam-Japan Defense Cooperation signed in 2018, which set a ten-year horizon for closer military ties, including more frequent ship visits and maritime security collaboration. The Kure stop follows a four-day port call in Qingdao, where Tran Hung Dao conducted exchanges and joint activities with the People’s Liberation Army Navy, and will be followed by a visit to the Republic of Korea, underlining Hanoi’s preference for a balanced defense diplomacy track in Northeast Asia.

At Kure, the JMSDF held a welcoming ceremony for the Vietnam People’s Navy contingent, with officers from both sides expected to use the visit to compare procedures on crew organisation, safety regulations, and standard operating practices at sea. Vietnamese defense representatives, including the defense attaché in Japan, are using the port call to link operational-level discussions on board with the broader political relationship that Tokyo and Hanoi have recently upgraded to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The ship at the center of this diplomacy, HQ 015 Tran Hung Dao, is one of four Russian-built Project 11661E Gepard 3.9 frigates in Vietnamese service. The class is roughly 102 metres long, displaces around 2,100 to 2,200 tonnes at full load, and is designed for patrol, escort, and area defense missions in coastal and semi enclosed seas, with a combined diesel and gas turbine propulsion plant that gives it a top speed in the high 20 knot range and, range of about 4,000 nautical miles.

Tran Hung Dao carries a mixed weapons suite that is credible in the tight shipping lanes of the Western Pacific. A bow-mounted AK 176M 76 mm gun provides rapid fire against surface and low flying air targets, while two quadruple launchers for Kh 35 Uran anti-ship missiles give the frigate an engagement envelope of more than 100 kilometres against hostile surface combatants. Close-in defense and anti-submarine capabilities are supplied by short-range air defense systems, torpedo tubes, and a helicopter-capable flight deck that can host a light anti-submarine warfare helicopter, extending the ship’s sensors and weapons beyond the radar horizon.

On the sensor side, the GEPARD design integrates 3D air and surface search radars with fire control systems optimised for cluttered littoral environments, supported by an electronic warfare suite intended to degrade or deceive hostile targeting. These features, combined with a modern combat management system, allow a ship like Tran Hung Dao to slot into a task group or multinational exercise structure and share a tactical picture in real time, a capability that matters when operating alongside the JMSDF or other partners in the congested sea lanes around Japan and the broader Indo-Pacific.

For Japan, hosting a Vietnamese frigate at Kure fits with a longer-running policy of deepening maritime security ties with Southeast Asian partners, including port visits, training support, and limited equipment cooperation. For Vietnam, the deployment showcases a more active navy that has increasingly sent its most modern surface combatants on long-range diplomacy missions to Russia, China, India, and now again to Japan and Korea. The combination of tactical capability on board Tran Hung Dao and the political messages attached to its itinerary illustrates how relatively small frigates can carry disproportionate strategic weight in current Indo-Pacific signaling.