By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Navy will launch its second 7,600 ton-class KDX-III destroyer armed with the up-to-date Aegis air warfare system in November, the Navy announced Sunday.
The ship, named after Yi I, a prominent Korean Confucian scholar of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), will be launched from the Okpo shipyard of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering on Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province, it said.
The Aegis Combat System built by Lockheed Martin of the United States is the world's premier surface-to-air/fire-control system, capable of simultaneous operations against aircraft, ballistic and cruise missiles, ships and submarines.
Only a few countries such as the United States, Japan, Spain and Norway have Aegis warships.
The new Aegis destroyer will be operational by the end of 2010 after a year-long sea trial, a Navy spokesman said. The service is to commission one more Sejong the Great-class destroyer by 2012.
The Navy launched its first of three planned KDX Aegis destroyers, Sejong the Great, last year.
The KDX-III ship is the core of the Navy's future ``strategic mobile squadrons'' consisting of 14,000 large-deck landing platforms, 4,500-ton KDX-II destroyers, 1,800-ton Type 214 submarines, frigates and anti-submarine Lynx helicopters.
The ship's SPY-1D radar can track some 1,000 aircraft within a 500-kilometer radius simultaneously, providing full 360-degree coverage. The ship can carry SM-2 ship-to-air missiles with a range of 170 kilometers.
The 166-meter-long ship can carry 128 sophisticated missiles including locally developed ship-to-ship missiles in its MK41 Vertical Launch System and Korea Vertical Launch System, and torpedoes.
Missile systems for the ship include ship-to-air SM-2 Block IIIA/B Tactical Standard missiles, built by Raytheon Systems, with a range of 170 kilometers; Cheonryong (sky dragon) ship-to-surface cruise missiles with a range of more than 500 kilometers; and Hongsangeo (red shark) long-range ship-to-submarine torpedoes with a target range of 19 kilometers.
Among other major armaments are the 150-kilometer-range Hae Seong (sea star) ship-to-ship missiles, the RAM MK-31 guided missiles, a 30-mm ``Goalkeeper'' system for engaging incoming sea-skimming anti-ship missiles and a 5-inch/62-caliber MK 45 Mod 4 lightweight gun.
The ship is equipped with radar-evading stealth technology and the domestically-built SLQ-200(V) SONATA electronic warfare system.
The ship can carry 300 crewmembers and is able to sail at a maximum speed of 30 knots with a cruising range of 10,000 kilometers. Its per-unit price is $1 billion.
The destroyer can carry two mid-sized helicopters and is scheduled to be deployed operationally as early as late next year, according to the Navy.