1st Guided-Missile Boat Commissioned
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Navy has commissioned the first of its next-generation high-speed patrol boats armed with sophisticated ship-to-ship guided missiles and an integrated surface-to-air/fire-control system after 19 months of sea trials.
A ceremony marking the commissioning of the lead ship of the PKX program was held in Jinhae, about 450 kilometers south of Seoul, Wednesday.
Under the PKX project initiated in 2005, the Navy plans to commission 20 more PKG (Patrol Killer, Guided Missile) class high-speed vessels by 2015, Navy officials said.
``The commissioning of the new patrol boat equipped with a high-tech combat system, guided missiles and naval guns has added a powerful capability to our Navy to deter any maritime invasion by the enemy,'' Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jung Ok-geun said in a speech.
The ship, named after late Lt. Cmdr. Yoon Young-ha who was killed during a 2002 inter-Korean naval skirmish near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea, was launched in June 2007 at a shipyard of Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction in Busan.
The naval gun battle occurred on June 29, 2002, after two North Korean patrol boats crossed the NLL, the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas.
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.
The 440-ton Yoon Young Ha ship, 63 meters long and 9 meters wide, can sail at a maximum speed of 40 knots, according to a press release. It is equipped with domestically-built ship-to-ship guided missiles as well as 76mm and 40mm guns and has a radar-evading stealth function, it said.
The ship has advanced anti-air/anti-ship radar systems and electronic warfare systems, it said.
Its combat system enables the ship to simultaneously detect and monitor up to 100 aerial and surface targets, while its automated weapons control system also allows it to engage a multiple number of targets at the same time, it said.