Korea’s KDX-III AEGIS Destroyers
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KDX (Korean Destroyer eXperimental) is the Republic of Korea’s big surface combatant shipbuilding program. This 3-phased program involves 3 individual classes of ships. The 3 KDX-I Gwanggaeto the Great Class ships are called destroyers, but a 3,800 tons their size and armament more properly rank them as small frigates. The last ship of class was commissioned in 2000. The next 6 KDX-II Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin Class ships are indeed destroyers at 6,085 tons full load, with a hull design licensed from Germany’s IABG and more advanced systems that include SM-2 air defense missiles. They were commissioned between 2003-2008.
With that experience under their belts, Korea has now launched into the 3rd phase of the program. The KDX-III King Sejong the Great destroyers are by far the largest, at 8,500 tons standard displacement and 11,000 tons full load. They carry the AEGIS combat system, along with a wide array of American, European, and Korean weapons and missiles.
DID’s article offers details regarding the class, as well as some of the relevant contracts. The latest item is a $41.1 million award to Lockheed Martin for combat systems engineering, installation, and testing aboard the 2nd ship being built in the KDX-III class…
- The KDX III Sejongdaewang-Ham Class
- Contracts and Key Events [updated]
- Additional Readings
The KDX III Sejongdaewang-Ham Class
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The KDX-III is clearly intended to be a multi-purpose destroyer will full air defense, land attack, anti-shipping, and anti-submarine capabilities. It is also being designed with tactical ballistic missile defense capabilities, and important consideration if North Korea is your neighbor. All of its contemporaries are classed as DDG (guided missile destroyers), but the ROK Navy has designated its KDX ships as DDH. The ROKN has ordered 3 ships so far, with an option for another 3.
The KDX-III King Sejong Class will be significantly larger than the 5,000t KDX-IIs, with a standard displacement of over 7,600t and a full load displacement of around 10,000t – almost light cruiser size. GE’s ubiquitous LM2500 gas turbines provide main power, thanks to 4 turbines mounted in each destroyer.
Sometimes described as an enlarged and updated DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Class, KDX-III will also use the advanced AEGIS radar & combat system combination with the AN/SPY-1D radar, and carry 80 Mk 41 vertical launch cells. Another 48 K-VLS cells aft will carry Hyunmoo cruise missiles, Korean ASROC, and possibly other Korean weapons in future.
Weapons will include RIM-116B Rolling Airframe Missile Block 1 and vertically-launched SM-2 Block IIIB surface-to-air missiles for anti-aircraft duries, plus a 30mm “Goalkeeper” CIWS system for close-in defense. Submarines will be confronted with 16 anti-submarine “Haesung” (sea star) rockets, and a pair of 324mm torpedo mounts in KMK 32 configuration. Other naval and land targets can be confronted with any combination of cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, etc. that the ROKN decides to place in the remaining MK 41 and K-VLS vertical launch cells.
The ships are being designed with a number of low-observable features to reduce their radar profile. These measures also include advanced infa-red signature reduction methods designed to give it an IR signature far superior to comparable ships, including its U.S. contemporary the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class destroyer.
Official statements said that the name Sejongdaewang-Ham (“King Sejong”) was chosen for the first ship because of this importance in Korean history. Besides supporting the creation of the Korean “Hangeul” alphabet, this 15th century Chosun Dynasty monarch is also known for strengthening the country’s national defense capability.
After the ROKS King Sejong’s official delivery to the ROK Navy at the end of 2008, 2 other ships of the class are expected to enter service in 2010 and 2012. GlobalSecurity.org estimates that each vessel will cost about 1.2 trillion won (roughly $923 million equivalent).
Contracts and Key Events
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Nov 17/09: Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors in Moorestown, NJ received a $41.1 million modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-03-C-5102) for combat systems engineering (CSE), installation, and testing aboard KDX-III Ship 2. This award includes CSE, computer program development, and ship integration and test support to deliver a variant of the US Navy Aegis weapon system Baseline 7 Phase I computer program and equipment to support the construction of the 2nd Korean ship in the KDX-III class. In addition, this contract funds an integrated test team to assist the Korean shipyard in performing installation and testing of the Aegis Combat System.
This contract involves purchases for the Republic of Korea under the Foreign Military Sales Program. Work will be performed in Moorestown, NJ (53%) and Korea (47%), and is expected to be complete by December 2010. The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington DC issued the contract.
June 22/09: The Korea Times reports that the indigenous Hongsangeo (Red Shark) replacement for American VL-ASROC anti-submarine missiles has completed its 9-year, $80 million development program, and will begin deployment in 2010.
The state-funded Agency for Defense Development (ADD) has also worked with Hongsangeo manufacturer LIG Nex1 to develop the conventional Cheongsangeo (Blue Shark) light torpedo and Baeksangeo (White Shark) heavy torpedo.
June 3/09: As North Korea prepares to test another long-range ballistic missile, The Korea Times reveals quotes an anonymous Navy source, who said that software glitches in its missile tracking radar system may keep ROKS Sejong the Great in repairs. The ship arrived at the Naval Logistics Command in Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province on May 23/09. According to their source:
“A flaw in the data transmission system linked with the missile tracking radar in the Aegis destroyer was found. Engineers from the Navy and Lockheed Martin are trying to fix the problem and reconfigure the radar system…. The Navy has actually not been able to test the Aegis radar’s maximum capability so far due to the software glitch…. We’re not sure at the moment if Sejong the Great will be able to participate in detecting a North Korean ballistic missile this time.”
Dec 22/08: ROKS Sejong the Great [DDG 991] enters active service, making it the 94th AEGIS-equipped ship fielded and making South Korea the 5th nation to field such ships.
ROKS Sejong the Great achieved the impressive feat of on-time, on-budget delivery for a first-of-class ship. It was built and tested at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in Ulsan, Korea and commissioned in Pusan, and completed its combat system test program ahead of schedule. Lockheed Martin.
Dec 1/08: Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors in Moorestown, NJ received a $19.2 million modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-03-C-5102) for AEGIS Weapon System Inter Site Data Link (ISDL) integration efforts and delivery of the Baseline K1.1 Aegis Weapon System computer programs integrating this capability into the KDX-III Sejong the Great Class destroyers.
The contractor shall provide program management, system engineering and computer program development, ship integration and test, and technical manual services required for the development, integration, test, This contract involves purchases for the Republic of Korea under the Foreign Military Sales Program. Work will be performed in Moorestown, NJ (90%) and Ulsan, South Korea (10%), and is expected to be complete by November 2009. The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington DC issued the contract.
Nov 14/08: The 2nd KDX-III destroyer, Yulgok Yi I [DDG 992], is launched at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) in Okpo, Korea. Yi I was a prominent Confucian scholar of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910). Korea Times | Lockheed Martin.
Nov 7/08: ROKS Sejong the Great [DDG 991] has its delivery accepted by the Republic of Korea Navy. Lockheed Martin.
May 25/07: The first KDX-III destroyer, the ROKS King Sejong [DDH 991], is launched in a ceremony at Ulsan shipyard in the southeastern port city. KOIS report | Hyundai Heavy Industries release.
March 1/07: DRS Technologies Inc. announces a $7 million contract from the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) Co. Ltd. to provide FODMS Navigation Sensor Distributors for the 2nd KDX-III destroyer, ROKS Yulgok Yi I [DDH 992]
Apr 25/05: Fresh off of a win to build fiber-optic multiplexing systems for American Arleigh Burke Class DDG 110-112 AEGIS destroyers, DRS Technologies Inc.’s EW & Network Systems unit in Buffalo, NY won a $9.2 million contract to build a fiber-optic network system for the Republic of Korea Navy’s related KDX-III King Sejong Class AEGIS destroyer.
DRS EW&NS will build the Fiber Optic Data Multiplex System (FODMS), a general purpose, dual-network system that provides data and integrated communications among propulsion and power control systems, steering, navigation sensors, weapons systems, alarms, indicators, bridge systems and the Aegis combat system, and ensures interoperability between legacy systems and off-the-shelf systems. Work will include the development of design documentation and installation drawing, installation and performance testing of the system. Work will commence immediately, and continue through January 2010.
The Special & Naval Shipbuilding Division of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in Ulsan, Republic of Korea, awarded the contract. DRS’ news release noted that the company also expects to receive future contracts of this nature, as the ROKN deploys additional KDX-III destroyers.
June 26/03: The U.S. Navy today awarded a $267.5 million contract to Lockheed Martin to provide combat systems engineering, computer program development, and ship integration and test support, as part of the U.S Navy and Lockheed Martin’s responsibility to provide the Aegis Weapon System for its KDX-III Destroyer Program. Lockheed Martin’s release adds that the Korean Navy selected the U.S Navy and Lockheed Martin to equip KDX-III with AEGIS “in late 2002.”
June 18/03: Lockheed Martin and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA) announce a $21 million contract today for the KDX-III destroyers’ the anti-submarine warfare control system. The contract expands a trans-Atlantic naval business relationship that began with work on Norway’s F310 Fridtjof Nansen Class AEGIS frigates.
June 17/03: Lockheed Martin announces an initial $67 million contract to continue production, delivery and installation of the MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) for the U.S. Navy. An additional contract option of $129 million to support of Korea’s KDX-III shipbuilding program could raise the contract’s total value to $196 million. United Defense, LP of Aberdeen, SD (now BAE Systems), will be issued a major subcontract to produce major subassemblies for the MK 41 VLS, as will Metric Systems in Fort Walton Beach, FL.
July 25/02: Lockheed Martin wins the contract to provide South Korea’s navy with weapons control systems for the 3 KDX-III destroyers, beating European rival Thales SA. The KDX-III will be equipped with the SPY-1 passive phased array radar and AEGIS combat system, rather than Thales APAR active array radar that serves on the German and Dutch F124 air defense frigates.
March 18/02: The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announces south Korea’s formal request for 3 Lockheed Martin AEGIS air defence systems, worth a potential US$1.2 billion, to arm the ROKN’s 3 new KDX-III destroyers.
Additional Readings
- Republic of Korea Navy – KDX-III Page. Includes both English and Korean text. Note comparison of the USA’s Arleigh Burke, Japan’s Kongo/Atago, and Korea’s KDX-III AEGIS destroyers.
- Deagel – KDX-III / DDH-III Sejongdaewang
- Wikipedia – King Sejong the Great class destroyer
- GlobalSecurity.org – KDX-III Destroyer. Incomplete, and the pictures are incorrect.
