Recently, Vietnam released the first screen of South China Sea reclamation island construction. From the video, we can see that Vietnamese sand digging boats are entering the cypress reef plate and conducting landfill operations in the internal drainage lake. At the same time, there are also mechanical equipment working, using stones to make dikes to fill coral reefs. It is said that Vietnam is going to build a port of call for fishing boats.
The islands and reefs controlled by Vietnam are mainly coral islands and reefs, and the area is very small. Except for Nanwei Island , the others are sandbanks, dark beaches, and reefs. They are exposed to the water at low tide, and most of them will be flooded underwater at high tide. In recent years, Vietnam has artificially reclaimed seashore in the South China Sea. First, it has built a large number of reef forts and high-legged platforms, and now it is preparing to further expand the area and establish fishing ports and other facilities.
Vietnam's island reclamation ability has actually been very poor. The main force in Vietnam's island building is the 83rd Brigade of the Vietnam Navy Engineers, but they can only rely on manpower to operate on high temperature and high humidity seas. In order to speed up the pace, the Vietnamese Navy also used the transport ship modified from the dilapidated landing ship , which the Soviet Union aided in 1979, to fill the island.
Vietnam lacks large island-building special engineering ships and can only rely on manpower and simple non-special machinery for construction. Basically, Vietnamese people are just piecemeals like ants moving, and it is difficult to form large-scale construction.
In the earliest days, Vietnam used excavators to dig and carry the soil method of carrying people on their shoulders to expand the reef area bit by bit. Later, the Vietnamese placed the excavator directly on the shallow level bottom barge and entered the reef operation. But it is easy to be washed away by wind and waves, and the effect is very poor.
Recently, Vietnam introduced dredgers from Europe for island building operations, but in October 2020, Typhoon 15, Lotus was sweeping the waters near Vietnam. This directly led to a Vietnamese imported dredger in desperate situation.
Finally, Vietnam dispatched the patrol ship KN-363 of the Vietnamese Coast Guard, the 126th Land Brigade Water Special Forces of the Vietnamese Navy's 126th Land Warfare Brigade, and the dolphin helicopter participated in the rescue operation. Although the Vietnamese crew was rescued, the large dredger sank into the sea. Vietnamese people are very stubborn and have never succeeded, but they have been continuing to build islands.
So, why is Vietnam so obsessed with island building? The first is economic interests. Through offshore operations, Vietnam Petroleum and Natural Gas Group has mined more than 430 million tons of crude oil, natural gas 165 billion cubic meters, revenue exceeds US$430 billion, and taxes are paid.
Overseas oil and natural gas have become one of Vietnam's most important income. In addition, Vietnam's fishery has set a target of a growth rate of 4.65%. In the first half of this year, Vietnam's fishery output was nearly 4 million tons.
Vietnam also believes that there are still a large number of mineral resources at sea, mainly coal mines, iron ore, titanium ore, crystal stone ore and various building materials. For example, in the coastal area of , Guangning Province, coal reserves are about 3 billion tons, accounting for 90% of Vietnam's national coal reserves.
Oil, gas and fisheries can also drive many industries in Vietnam. At the same time, Vietnam also pays attention to developing the scope of maritime forces and expands toward Malacca to control important maritime routes.
In military terms, Vietnam has introduced 6 Russian Kilo-class submarines for US$1.8 billion. Moreover, Vietnam also has a series of advanced weapons including ultra-long-range anti-ship missiles, air defense missiles, Cheetah-class missile frigate , poisonous spider missile boats, Su-30, Su-27 fighter jets and anti-stealth radar .
Therefore, Vietnam hopes to build more radar stations, surveillance points and ports, and even airport runways through reclamation to expand the range of activities and monitoring capabilities of the Vietnamese Sea and Air Force and the anti-ship missile force .
However, it is not possible to reclaim sea and island construction with large dredgers. It also requires the technology of fixing sand and edges. Otherwise, the excavated sea sand does not have the ability to condense sand, and it will easily be washed away by typhoons and waves. Although Europe and the United States also have sand fixing technology, it is all in offshore waters.
I don’t say it, everyone knows that there is only one country in the world that has deep-sea sand fixation technology that can withstand the bearings of storms and geology in the ocean, so that it can build a truly urban island! Vietnam's existing technology is at most a basketball court or something.
