King Sejong the Great class destroyer
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The ''Sejong the Great''-class destroyers (Sejongdaewang-Geup Guchukam or
Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...
: 세종대왕급 구축함,
Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...
: 世宗大王級驅逐艦), also known as KDX-III, are three
guided-missile destroyer A guided-missile destroyer (DDG) is a destroyer whose primary armament is guided missiles so they can provide anti-aircraft warfare screening for the fleet. The NATO standard designation for these vessels is DDG, while destroyers who have a prim ...
s of the
Republic of Korea Navy The Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN; ko, 대한민국 해군), also known as the ROK Navy or South Korean Navy, is the naval warfare service branch of the South Korean armed forces, responsible for naval and amphibious operations. The ROK Navy i ...
(ROKN).


Hull name

On 20 April 2007, South Korean Chief of Naval Operations announced that the lead ship of KDX-III class destroyers will be referred to as ''Sejong the Great''. Sejong the Great (
Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...
: 세종대왕) is the fourth king of the
Josun Dynasty Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon, Yi Seong-gye in ...
of
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
. He is credited with the creation of the indigenous Korean system of writing.


Background

The ''Sejong the Great'' class is the third phase of the South Korean navy's Korean Destroyer eXperimental (KDX) program, a substantial shipbuilding program, which is geared toward enhancing ROKN's ability to successfully defend the maritime areas around South Korea from various modes of threats as well as becoming a blue-water navy. At 8,500 tons standard displacement and 11,000 tons full load, the KDX-III ''Sejong the Great'' destroyers are the largest destroyers in the South Korean Navy and larger than most destroyers in the navies of other countries. They are built slightly bulkier and heavier than s or s to accommodate 32 more missiles. As such, some analysts believe that this class of ships is more appropriately termed a class of cruisers rather than
destroyers In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
. KDX-III are currently the largest ships to carry the Aegis combat system.


Armaments

''Sejong the Great''-class destroyers' main gun is the 127 mm/L62 Mk 45 Mod 4 naval gun, an improved version of the same gun used on other warships from several other nations. Point-defense armaments include one 30 mm
Goalkeeper CIWS The Goalkeeper CIWS is a Dutch close-in weapon system (''SEE-wiz'') introduced in 1979. It is an autonomous and completely automatic weapon system for short-range defence of ships against highly manoeuvrable missiles, aircraft and fast-manoeuve ...
and a RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile Block 1 21-round launcher, the first Aegis platform to carry RAM. Anti-aircraft armament consists of SM-2 Block IIIA and IIIB in 80 total Mk 41 VLS cells. Block IIIB has added infrared (IR) induction mode to Block IIIA, improving interception capability.
Anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...
armaments consists of both K-ASROC ''Hong Sang-uh'' (Red Shark) anti-submarine rockets, which have the same form as the U.S.
ASROC The RUR-5 ASROC (for "Anti-Submarine Rocket") is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. Developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it was deployed in the 1960s, updated in the 1990s, and eventually installed ...
, and 32 K745 LW ''Cheong Sang-uh'' (Blue Shark) torpedoes. Anti-ship capability is provided by 16 SSM-700K ''Hae Sung'' (Sea Star) long-range anti-ship missiles, each with performance similar to the U.S.
Harpoon A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch and injure large fish or marine mammals such as seals and whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal ...
. It is equipped on a navy ship that is built after the late KDX-II destroyers. Land-attack capability is provided by the Hyunmoo III cruise missile. Missile batteries * Vertical Launching System: 128 total cells ** Mk 41 VLS 48 cells (Fwd) ** Mk 41 VLS 32 cells (Aft) ** K-VLS 48 cells (Aft) * Anti-ship missile launchers: **16 (4 × quadruple) launchers


Capabilities

The ship features the
Aegis Combat System The Aegis Combat System is an American integrated naval weapons system developed by the Missile and Surface Radar Division of RCA, and it is now produced by Lockheed Martin. Initially used by the United States Navy, Aegis is now used also by ...
(Baseline 7 Phase 1) combined with
AN/SPY-1 The AN/SPY-1 is a United States Navy 3D radar system manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The array is a passive electronically scanned system and a key component of the Aegis Combat System. The system is computer controlled and uses four complement ...
D(V) multi-function radar antennae. This gives the destroyers the ability to track missiles launched from anywhere in North Korea. This capability was demonstrated by the tracking of a North Korean missile in April 2009. The ''Sejong the Great''-class destroyers are often compared to the ''Arleigh Burke'' and ''Atago'' classes because they utilize the AN/SPY-1D multi-function radar, and have similar propulsion and capabilities. One notable difference between the ''Sejong the Great''-class ships and ''Arleigh Burke''s is the number of VLS cells. Destroyers of the ''Sejong the Great'' class have a capacity of 128 missiles, as opposed to 96 on the ''Arleigh Burke'' class and the Japanese ''Atago''-class destroyers. The ''Sejong the Great'' class is thus one of the most heavily armed ships in the world, with greater missile capacity than the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy
Type 055 destroyer The Type 055 destroyer (NATO/ OSD Renhai-class cruiser) is a class of stealth guided-missile destroyers ( guided-missile cruisers per NATO/OSD standard) being constructed for the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. It is a multi-mission desi ...
(112 VLS cells) and the U.S. Navy
guided-missile cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...
(122 VLS cells). The ''Sejong the Great'' class is surpassed in VLS depth only by the with 352 missiles (entire missile load). Another similarity to ''Arleigh Burke'' Flight IIA and ''Atago''-class destroyers is the presence of full facilities for two helicopters, a feature missing from earlier ''Arleigh Burke'' and s.


BMD

In August 2016, press reports revealed that South Korea was considering adding the SM-3 interceptor to its ''Sejong the Great''-class ships to enable them to perform
ballistic missile defense Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), ...
in response to North Korean efforts to bolster offensive missile capabilities. This came months after the U.S. decision to deploy the
THAAD Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), formerly Theater High Altitude Area Defense, is an American anti-ballistic missile defense system designed to shoot down short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their termina ...
missile interceptor system on mainland South Korea. The addition of SM-3s to the ships may require software and computer hardware upgrades. The following month, Aegis manufacturer Lockheed Martin confirmed the next three ''Sejong the Great'' vessels will be capable of performing "integrated air and missile defense" (IAMD) to supplement
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
ground-based missile interceptors on the peninsula, likely being outfitted with the SM-3. While the first three destroyers are fitted with Aegis Baseline 7 based on older proprietary computers that can't carry out IAMD operations, the following three will be fitted with the Baseline 9 version of the Aegis Combat System that combines modern computing architecture to allow the AN/SPY-1D(V) radar to perform air warfare and BMD missions at the same time.


Ships in the class

On 10 October 2019, HHI signed a deal to build the first of three 170m long, KDX-III Batch II Aegis destroyers for the Republic of Korea Navy. The ''Sejong the Great'' class is KDX-III Batch-I, and Korean Navy is planning 3 ships of KDX-III Batch-II. Under the deal, HHI will deliver the first ship by November 2024.


See also

*
List of naval ship classes in service The list of naval ship classes in service includes all combatant surface classes in service currently with navies or armed forces and auxiliaries in the world. Ships are grouped by type, and listed alphabetically within. For other vessels, see ...
*
List of active Republic of Korea Navy ships The Republic of Korea Navy has about 160 ships in commission (a total displacement of about 232,285 tonnes). The vessels are categorized into four levels. A first-rate ship (''Sohn Wonyil-''class SS, DDG, DDH, LPH, MLS, and AOE) is commande ...


References


External links


KDX-III Destroyer

KDX-III armaments
{{Republic of Korea Navy ships Destroyers of the Republic of Korea Navy Destroyer classes