South Korea’s First KDX III Batch II Aegis Destroyer Started Sea Trials

[Zarvan]

ROKS Jeongjo the Great (995), the first KDX III Batch II destroyer for the ROK Navy, during sea trials. Screenshot from DAPA video.

South Korea’s First KDX III Batch II Aegis Destroyer Started Sea Trials​

South Korea's new Aegis destroyer (KDX II Batch II), ROK Jeongjo the Great, started sea trials, according to an official DAPA video.​

YoungHak Lee 16 Oct 2023

The lead ship of the KDX III Batch II program, ROKS Jeongjo the Great was launched on July 28, 2022 at the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea.

Following the launching ceremony the vessel entered outfitting stage, pierside. Naval News can confirm that the ship was still undergoing outfitting at the Ulsa shipyard in May (Naval News Editor in Chief having toured the shipyard and seen the destroyer ahead of MADEX 2023).

Since the launch of ROKS Jeongjo the Great, South Korean government did not release any information or photos about the ship. A year of silence from the ROK Navy, companies, and the government. However this changed on Oct. 6 when DAPA published on its YouTube channel a video showing the vessel during sea trials.

The video shows Jeongjo the Great Aegis destroyer almost fully armed with VLS. However, the KVLS-II homegrown vertical launch system is still under development, so the space for the VLS section is still vacant.

The KDX III Batch II program calls for three Aegis destroyers to be built. The lead ship is scheduled to be delivered to the ROK Navy in November 2024.

All three ‘Jeongjo the Great’ class Aegis destroyers are planned to be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), and the second ship, which has a steel cutting ceremony on July 4, 2023, is scheduled to be delivered to the ROK Navy in 2026.

KDX-III Batch-II destroyer scale model on HHI stand during MADEX 2023.
As crucial part of the Korea Air and Missile Defense (KAMD), the ‘Jeongjo the Great’ class Aegis destroyers will have ballistic missile defense (BMD) capabilities. Unlike the existing Sejong the Great class Aegis destroyers (KDX III Batch I program), the ‘Jeongjo the Great’ class Aegis destroyers have the latest Aegis combat system, Baseline 9.C2 ‘KII’. It brings better detection performances and allow to use Raytheon Technologies Corporation’s (RTX) SM-6 and SM-3 missiles.

The ‘Jeongjo the Great’ class Aegis destroyers, unlike other Aegis ships, will have the ability to strike surface targets from stand off distances using ‘Ship to surface ballistic missile’ from the KVLS-II which is currently under development. The missile name is locally known as Hyunmoo-IV-2.

KVLS-II unveiled at MADEX 2021.
The ‘Jeongjo the Great’ class Aegis destroyer’s combat system is integrated with local systems. Thanks to infrared detection and tracking equipment (IRST) and the electro-optical tracking equipment (EOTS), the detection and tracking capabilities has been more than doubled compared to Sejong the Great class Aegis destroyer, and the submarine detection range has been improved more than ‘Three times’ with an integrated sonar system. The ‘Jeongjo the Great’ class Aegis destroyer’s hull mounted sonar (HMS) hardware size has been significantly larger than the Sejong the Great class Aegis destroyer’s HMS. The newly developed variable depth sonar (VDS) and multi-function towed array (MFTA) is applied to the ‘Jeongjo the Great’ class Aegis destroyer.

Story by YoungHak Lee. Editing and additional reporting by Xavier Vavasseur.

South Korea's First KDX III Batch II Aegis Destroyer Started Sea Trials - Naval News

South Korea's new Aegis destroyer (KDX II Batch II), ROKS Jeongjo the Great, started sea trials, according to an official DAPA video.

www.navalnews.com

 

[Oldman1]

The U.S. Navy should adopt the Korean design by making an Arleigh Burke Flight IV which makes the ship longer and wider beam and able to carry more weaponry especially conventional ballistic missiles of some type whether hypersonic or not. Should be at least 560 ft long and 70 ft wide. The tools and equipment are already there to build that type of ship quickly instead of making a whole new class which would be really expensive and too long to build probably to the point of cancellation.

Arleigh Burke-class destroyer - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Fully loaded: Flight I: 8,200 long tons (8,300 t)[2] Flight II: 8,300 long tons (8,400 t)[3] Flight IIA: 9,300 long tons (9,500 t)[4] Flight III: 9,500 long tons (9,700 t)[5]
Length	Flights I & II: 505 ft (154 m)[7] Flights IIA & III: 509.5 ft (155.3 m)[7]
Beam	66 ft (20 m)[2]
Draft	31 ft (9.4 m)[2]

Sejong the Great-class destroyer - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Displacement	7,650 tons standard displacement 10,600 tons full load
Length	Batch 1 166 m (544 ft 7 in), Batch 2 170 m (557 ft 9 in)
Beam	21.4 m (70 ft 3 in)
Draft	6.25 m (20 ft 6 in)

South Korea has already adopted the reduce signature smoke stack that the Burke class has put on. Their previous Sejong the Great class destroyer didn't have that.

Arleigh Burke destroyer.