The Republic of Korea Navy (RoKN) is set to receive the first of three new 8,200-ton Aegis guided missile destroyers ordered under the Gwanggaeto III Batch II programme (or KDX III Batch II) in late November, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
The impending addition of the future ROKS Jeongjo Daewang (Jeongjo the Great) to the RoKN fleet at the HD HHI facility in Ulsan is being seen as a welcome development to alleviate the increasing threat of North Korean missiles.
Jeongjo the Great will be South Korea’s fourth Aegis guided-missile destroyer after ROKS King Sejong the Great, ROKS Yulgok Yi I and the ROKS Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong, which were ordered under the preceding Batch I programme.
The Ministry of National Defense’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) earlier announced in July2022 that Jeongjo Daewang was launched at HD HHI’s facilities in Ulsan.
According to DAPA, Batch II vessels will be equipped with an undisclosed ballistic missile defence (BMD) system – believed to be the US-made Aegis Combat System – and features improved anti-submarine warfare capabilities over the 7,600 tonne Batch I ships.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) earlier announced in October 2018 that Lockheed Martin had been awarded a US$365.7 million Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract to provide three next-generation RoKN guided-missile destroyers with the Baseline K2 version of the Aegis Combat System. The US subsequently approved a US$313.9 million FMS contract to South Korea for a further batch of Raytheon Standard Missile-2 Medium Range (SM-2MR) Block IIIB surface-to-air missiles.
South Korea has also expressed interest in Raytheon’s Standard Missile-6 (SM-6), which are expected to be budgeted for between 2023 and 2031.
The KDX-III Batch II destroyers are reportedly equipped with up to 88 vertical launch system (VLS) cells, which would contain a mix of US- and Korean-made missiles. Besides the aforementioned weapons, the ships will also carry the LIG Nex1 Haegung (Sea Bow) Korean Surface to Air Anti Missile (K-SAAM), SSM-700K Haeseong (Sea Star) surface-to-surface missile and also the Hong Sang Eo (Red Shark) Korean Anti-Submarine Rocket (K-ASROC) system.
HHI was awarded a US$565 million contract by DAPA in October 2019 to build Jeongjo Daewang. The KDX-III Batch II programme is expected to cost South Korea around US$3.3 billion.
by Jr Ng
