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The South Korean Navy's submarine SSK Lee Eok Gi (SS-071) wobbled a bit, setting sail from the country's newest naval port on Jeju Island. The slight odor of oil that filled the cramped, windowless diesel-electric sub made some of the strangers aboard worry about getting seasick. "This is (like) a lake," Cdr. Kang Byung-oh, the captain of the 1,200-ton sub, told a small group of reporters in the torpedo room, which doubles as a briefing room, last week. "The waves are only about 1.5 meters high. When we came here yesterday from Jinhae (in South Gyeongang Province), they were 5...

The Navy said Thursday that it has launched a new guided missile frigate capable of hitting North Korean targets on the ground. The Navy held a launch ceremony for the 28-hundred ton frigate named "Daegu" on Geoje Island at 2 p.m. The ship boasts formidable firepower to conduct antiaircraft, antiship and antisubmarine operations and even ground warfare. It is also South Korea's first warship with a hybrid propulsion system using both gas turbines and diesel generators. Gas turbines will be used to shore up speed in combat situations while diesel generators will operate in normal patrol missions. The frigate will...

The South Korean Military is developing submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), a high-ranking military official said. “On the 3,000-ton Jangbogo-III submarine, which is currently under production, we are installing a vertical launching pad,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. SLBMs are fired undersea and are therefore difficult to detect by radar. He added, “The installation of a vertical launching pad indicates that the SLBM is already under development.” The official also went on to say that the SLBM is being developed under the aegis of the Agency of Defense Development and is expected to be completed by...

South Korea’s military on Tuesday held a ceremony to formally start the assembly of its first domestically developed submarine, slated to be deployed in the 2020s. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration said the keel laying ceremony -- which officially recognizes the start of a ship’s construction -- for batch 1 of Jangbogo-III submarine was held by its builder Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. The steel cutting ceremony for the vessel was held in November 2014. Daewoo had also built the Navy’s 209-class Jangbogo-I and won a maintenance contract for the submarines, according to the company’s officials on Tuesday. Jangbogo-III,...

By Kim Tae-gyu Korea plans to build three more Aegis destroyers to double the total number to six at a time when the country faces multiple challenges including the North Korean threats and lingering territorial disputes with both Japan and China. A military source who is familiar with the issue said Sunday the decision to augment the Navy would be made during a Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) meeting slated for Dec. 22. “The Navy requested three additional Aegis ships a year ago and the JCS was poised to discuss the issue at last month’s meeting,” said the source who...

SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean Navy has made a request to build three more Aegis destroyers to bolster defense against its Asian neighbors and North Korea amid increasing military tension due to territorial disputes, a military source said Wednesday. South Korea currently operates three 7,600-ton Aegis warships, but the Navy has sought to increase its fleet to cope with rising regional tension in light of Pyongyang's third nuclear test conducted earlier this year and ongoing territorial disputes between China and Japan. "The Navy made a request for three additional Aegis ships to the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

South Korea reiterated warnings to Pyongyang over future military attacks as South Korea commemorates the fatal 2010 sinking of the patrol ship Cheonan allegedly by North Korea. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said South Korea will "thoroughly retaliate against North Korea" if provoked again," a report by Yonhap news agency said. Last week Lee and Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik visited the National Cemetery in Daejeon to pay respects to the dead sailors. The 1,200-ton naval corvette Cheonan sank rapidly after an explosion from a suspected torpedo ripped the vessel in half in March 2010. It sank just more than 1...

The military is mulling ordering the deployment of missile interceptors to shoot down any debris that could fall on South Korean territory in the event that a satellite bearing North Korean rocket strays from its planned trajectory. The Stalinist regime recently announced that it would launch a satellite from a long-range rocket sometime between April 12 and 16 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the April 15 birth of its founder Kim Il-sung. “We are preparing measures to track the missile's trajectory and shoot it down if by any chance it deviates from the planned route and falls into...

ROK(South Korea) Navy's 3rd and last KD3 class Aegis destroyer ROKS Ryu,Sung-Yong(DDG-993) has been launched today at Hyundai Heavy Industries, Ulsan city. KD3 class Aegis destroyer has been equipped with 128 VLS cells: 80 Mk41 VLS cells for SM-2 Block 3A/3B, 48 KVLS(Korean VLS) cells for 32 Sky Dragon Land Attack Cruise Missiles and 16 Red Shark ASROC. photos by KDNphotos by kidlmy from KDNCapt. Lee, Sang-Gap, DDG-993 first KD3 class Aegis destoyer ROKS Sejong The Great(DDG-991) photo by ROKNphoto by Shin, In-Kyun from KDNphotos by Jager from KODEF ROKS Sejong The Great video

never heard of ROK Navy's KVLS and KVLA? KVLS or Korean Vertical Launching Systme is indigenous,actually more like copy of Mk41,VLS for ROK Navy. KVLA or Korean Vertical Launching ASROC is indigenous Anti-Submarine Rocket that holds K745 Blue Shark LW torpedo. I gathered some rare pics of KVLS on the net. as always, I'm all thumbs when it comes to write in English. KVLSfor more KVLS info, visit the source URL. KVLA Red Shark and K745 Blue Shark LW torpedo

North Korea on Tuesday denied any involvement in sinking the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan based on what it claims was an internal investigation, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported. The statement was issued by the top decision-making National Defense Commission. Earlier on May 28, the commission held a press conference for domestic and foreign journalists to rebut the findings of an international probe that put the blame squarely on the North. A South Korean security official said Pyongyang "apparently decided to refuse South Korea's repeated demands for an apology as a precondition for massive aid requested by...

South Korea's navy fired warning shots Wednesday to drive back a North Korean boat which was fishing illegally in southern waters amid high tension along the Yellow Sea border, military officials said. The boat retreated to its side about two hours and 40 minutes after it had intruded across the disputed border, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. A South Korean navy boat fired 10 warning shots from a machine gun after broadcasting three verbal warnings, it said. No one was reported hurt. The North's vessel appeared to have been unable to move for a time because...

South Korea and the United States have decided not to hold a joint naval drill, which was expected to take place in the Yellow Sea late this month, in consideration of geopolitical conditions ahead of an upcoming Seoul G-20 economic summit, defense sources said Sunday. "For the time being, there will be no joint aircraft carrier strike group exercise that South Korea and the U.S. considered holding late this month," a high-level government source said, requesting anonymity. "A training involving a U.S. aircraft carrier will not be held within this year." The allies initially planned to hold the exercise joined...

The United States and South Korea will stage about 10 naval exercises in coming months including one starting Sunday as a deterrent to North Korea, Seoul's defence ministry said Wednesday. On Tuesday the US and South Korean defence chiefs announced a major exercise from July 25-28 off the east coast of the peninsula, following the sinking of a South Korean warship that they blame on a North Korean torpedo. The two sides said the drill was the first in a series but gave no details. "Both sides will continue to conduct joint military exercises -- approximately 10 times -- in...

South Korea is planning to hold an anti-submarine exercise next month in the Yellow Sea following a joint naval drill with the United States expected to be staged later this month in the East Sea, a military source said Friday. The planned exercise is a display of military force intended to deter future provocation by North Korea in the wake of the North's deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in March, the source said. No date has been fixed for the exercise that will take place in the Yellow Sea, where a North Korean torpedo sank the Cheonan warship,...

The Russian Defense Ministry has effectively dismissed the idea of buying a South Korean warship in place of a French Mistral-class amphibious assault ship, a Russian business daily reported on Thursday. According to Kommersant, the United Shipbuilding Corporation proposed the purchase of a $650 million Dokdo helicopter carrier from South Korea. In a letter to Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, USC CEO Roman Trotsenko said his corporation could buy a license to build a Dokdo-class ship at a Russian shipyard within three years. The Defense Ministry is skeptical about the ability of Russian shipyards to build such ships in principle or...

South Korea and the United States will push ahead with a joint naval exercise to warn North Korea against making attacks on the South, officials in Seoul and Washington said. But a defense ministry official told the JoongAng Ilbo that the two countries have arrived at a compromise to avoid angering China, which objected to the exercise being held in the Yellow Sea near its own territorial waters. “We will hold drills in both the Yellow Sea and the East Sea,” the official said. In addition, the U.S.S. George Washington, a U.S. Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, will participate in the exercise...

The United States announced Wednesday that some of the naval exercises planned with South Korean forces will be held in the Yellow Sea, between the Korean Peninsula and China, in spite of Chinese government concerns about the plan. The Pentagon also confirmed for the first time that a U.S. aircraft carrier will be involved in the exercises, but would not say whether the huge ship will participate in the Yellow Sea part of the event. Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said the United States respects and considers China's views, but will not be deterred from holding the exercises. They were...

South Korea's defense ministry said Tuesday it expects to hold joint naval exercises with the United States in July, though an exact date and location of the planned drills have yet to be set. Defense ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters the two sides are still working on the details of the joint drills, which were originally scheduled for last month to deter any further North Korean provocations in the wake of Pyongyang's deadly sinking of a Seoul warship in March.Still, the date, location and methods have not been decided, but I think it's right to say the South Korea-U.S....

South Korea's military plans to convene a disciplinary committee meeting late this month to censure senior officers over the deadly sinking of a naval ship in North Korea's torpedo attack in March, an official said Sunday. Last month, South Korea's state audit agency, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), asked the defense ministry to reprimand 25 senior military officers, accusing them of mishandling the March 26 sinking of the warship Cheonan, which left 46 sailors dead. "We're conducting an investigation to determine the accountability of those accused by the BAI," a senior defense ministry official said on condition of...