New S.Korea Anti-submarine Frigate Launched

South Korea launched Daejeon, its new 2,800-ton anti-submarine frigate, on Monday.

ROKS Daejeon is the fifth of the Navy’s FFX Batch II frigates being built to replace old 1,500-ton frigates and 1,000-ton patrol combat corvettes.

The launch took place at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME)'s Okpo shipyard on the southern island of Geoje.

Daejeon is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy by the end of the next year after a trial period.

As per South Korean media reports, a 122-meter warship can accommodate 120 crew members aboard and can reach speeds of 30 knots. It will be armed with various weapons, including ship-to-ship and surface-to-ground missiles. It will also carry a helicopter for naval operations.

The ship is fitted with a 16-cell Korean vertical launching system (K-VLS) to deploy K-SAAM (Korean Surface to Air Anti Missile), Hong Sang Eo (Red Shark) anti-submarine missile, and Haeryong (SSM-701K Sea Dragon) tactical land attack cruise missiles. They are also fitted with torpedo launchers for anti-submarine warfare and eight SSM-700K Haeseong anti-ship missiles. All these missile systems are designed and produced by local company LIG Nex1. The gun systems consists in a Mk 45 MOD. 4 naval gun system (main gun) and a Phalanx Block 1B CIWS.

The new frigate has improved capability to detect and attack submarines with a towed array sonar system and a long-range antisubmarine torpedo.

A total of 8 frigates of this class, also known as the Incheon-class batch II or FFG-II, are set to be built by both DSME and Hyundai Heavy Industries (HII), for the South Korean fleet.

First ship of the class, ROKS Daegu, was built by DSME. It was launched in June 2016 and commissioned with the ROK Navy in March 2018. Second ship of the class, ROKS Gyeongnam was launched in June 2019 and was built by DSME as well. The third FFX Batch II Frigate, ROKS Seoul, was launched in November 2019. The third and fourth frigates of the class were built by HHI.