HHI Corporation held an official ceremony of laying the lead destroyer of the KDX-III project of the second series. There will be three such ships in total.
The first destroyer of the new type was laid down at the shipyard in Ulsan on October 5. The first steel cutting for him was carried out in February of this year. The launch of the destroyer is planned in 2022, and the ship should be handed over to the Naval Forces of the Republic of Korea in 2024.
Hyundai Heavy Industries received a framework contract for the construction of a new type of ships in October 2019. There will be three such destroyers in total. Two other representatives of the KDX-III project of the second series will be commissioned approximately in 2026-2028.
Earlier, three destroyers of the KDX-III project of the first series were built for the South Korean Navy. The project was created on the basis of the American Arleigh Burke. The destroyer turned out to be larger than the American one and became the largest ship to receive the AEGIS system, as well as the most powerfully armed: the ship of the DDX-III project of the first series, among other things, received 128 vertical missile launchers.
KDX-III of the first series
Image source: wikipedia
The first such ship was launched back in 2007, it joined the Navy in 2008. The last representative of the first series joined the fleet on August 30, 2012. Two destroyers (DDG 991 and DDG 993) were built by HHI Corporation at the shipyard in Ulsan, and another was created by DSME in Okpo.
The KDX-III project of the second series is even larger than its predecessor. The displacement of the empty ship will be 8,100 tons, and the maximum length will be 170 meters. The destroyer will receive a modified AEGIS system of the Baseline 9 standard (the first series has AEGIS Baseline 7.1), which will solve missile defense tasks. Other improvements are associated, in particular, with an increase in the anti-submarine capabilities of the ship.
In recent years, South Korea has been making every effort to re-equip its Naval forces, which is due, among other things, to the strengthening of the Chinese fleet, as well as long-standing contradictions with the DPRK.
Recall that recently in the city of Ulsan, the final submarine of the KSS III Batch 1 type, the Shin Chae—ho boat, was launched . Even earlier, a new type of K-SLBM ballistic missile was launched from a submarine of this type: as a result, Korea became one of the countries with submarine- launched ballistic missiles.
Shin Chae-ho
Image source: navalnews
The length of the third submarine of the type KSS III Batch 1 was 83.5 meters, and the width was 9.6 meters. The boat will be able to reach a maximum speed of 20 knots (37 kilometers per hour). The crew consists of 50 people.
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