 The Navy’s third 1,800-ton submarine Ahn Jung Geun sits at a dockyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, Wednesday. / Yonhap |
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Navy launched its third 1,800-ton, class Type-214, submarine armed with high-tech missiles and sensor systems Wednesday in an effort to strengthen its blue-water capability.
The diesel-electric submarine, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries under technical cooperation with Germany's Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW), is expected to play a key role in sea denial to North Korean and other hostile forces and anti-submarine warfare, a Navy spokesman said.
This latest submarine was named after Ahn Jung-geun, a renowned Korean independence fighter who assassinated Japan's first Resident General Ito Hirobumi in 1909 in an attempt to frustrate Japan's annexation of Korea.
The Type-214 subs are also expected to be a core part of the soon-to-be-created ``strategic mobile squadron,'' involving Aegis-equipped destroyers, state-of-the-art submarines, anti-submarine aircraft and advanced frigates, which can be deployed in a conflict situation, he said.
The Navy plans to create a submarine command by 2018. To that end, the Navy will launch six more Type-214 submarines by 2018 and build indigenous 3,000-ton class submarines beginning in 2018.
``By launching the third KSS-II submarine, following the launch of the Sejong the Great Aegis destroyer and the Dokdo-class large-deck landing ship last year, the Navy has taken another step forward towards creating an advanced naval force,'' Gen. Kim Tae-young, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.
In a ceremony at a Hyundai shipyard in Ulsan, Kim added the new submarine will also help boost the nation's self-defense capability in line with the planned transition of wartime operational control of Korean troops from the U.S. military to Korean commanders in 2012.
The ceremony was attended by some 100 Hyundai executives and high-profile military officials, including Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jung Ok-keun.
The Type-214 is equipped with state-of-the-art torpedoes and submarine-to-surface missiles. It has a maximum submerged speed of 20 knots and a crew of 40. One submarine costs around $1 billion to produce.
The 65.3-meter-long submarine is equipped with Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) which improves its underwater performance and gives it stealth capability. The submarine can submerge to depths of up to 400 meters and carry out underwater operations for as long as two weeks. Its operational radius reaches Guam.
Its ISUS-90 integrated sensor submarine system enables operators to deal with lots of information in many different variants and detect up to 300 targets simultaneously.
The first Type-214 is named Sohn Won-il, while the second one, the Jeong Ji, is to be handed over to the Navy late this year. The Ahn Jung-geun is to become operational next year, according to the Navy.
gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr
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