By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

The Navy deployed a brand-new patrol boat armed with state-of-the-art ship-to-ship guided missiles to waters off the country's western coast, Tuesday, where tension has been heightened since North Korea's May 25 nuclear test.

Along with a 3,500-ton light destroyer and a frigate, the stealthy 440-ton vessel commissioned last December will help the Navy maintain ``dominant'' sea power over North Korean naval forces near the volatile Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea and deter any maritime provocations, a Navy spokesman said.

The lead PKG (Patrol Killer, Guided Missile) class high-speed ship named after late Lt. Cmdr. Yoon Young-ha who was killed during a 2002 inter-Korean naval skirmish near the NLL, is armed with 140-kilomter-range Haeseong ship-to-ship missiles and a 76-milimeter gun with a range of 16 kilometers, he said.

The 63-meter-long, 9-meter-wide ship is also equipped with a 40-milimeter gun that can fire 600 rounds per minute and has a maximum speed of 40 knots. The ship has advanced anti-air/anti-ship radar and electronic warfare systems.

Its combat system enables the ship to simultaneously detect and monitor up to 100 aerial and surface targets, while its automated weapons control system allows it to engage a multiple number of targets at the same time.

The Navy plans to deploy 20 more PKG-class ships by 2015.

Sailors near the sea border have been placed on high alert since there is a high possibility that North Korea might provoke an incident again. Two gun battles between the two navies occurred in 1999 and 2002.

In the 2002 skirmish, one of the North Korean ships was heavily damaged and some 30 North Koreans were believed to have been killed or wounded. Six South Koreans, including Yoon, were killed and 18 others injured.

Meanwhile, the Air Force, for its part, will carry out a training exercise today with its high-tech F-15K fleet, according to the service.

The training at a Daegu air base will include the test-firings of SLAM-ER air-to-ground precision-strike missiles and AIM-120 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, as well as Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombings.

The F-15K is capable of air-to-ground, air-to-air and air-to-sea missions day and night, in any weather conditions. It has a 23,000-pound payload and can fly at a maximum speed of Mach 2.3, with an operational radius of 1,800 kilometers. A single aircraft costs about $100 million.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr