ROKS ''Ulsan'' (FF-951) is the

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships that are all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very comple ...

of the ''Ulsan''-class

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

in the

Republic of Korea Navy The Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN; ), also known as the ROK Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces, South Korean armed forces, responsible for naval and Amphibious warfare, amphibious operations. The South ...

. She is named after the city,

Ulsan Ulsan (; ), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighbo ...

Development

In the early 1990s, the Korean government plan for the construction of next generation coastal ships named ''Frigate 2000'' was scrapped due to the

1997 Asian financial crisis The 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide eco ...

. But the decommissioning of the destroyers and the aging fleet of ''Ulsan''-class frigates, the plan was revived as the Future Frigate eXperimental, also known as FFX in the early 2000s. 10 ships were launched and commissioned from 1980 to 1993. They have 3 different variants which consists of Flight I, Flight II and Flight III.

Construction and career

ROKS ''Ulsan'' was launched on 8 April 1980 by

Hyundai Heavy Industries HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI; ) is the world's largest shipbuilding company and a major heavy equipment manufacturer. Its headquarters are in Ulsan, South Korea. History HHI was founded in 1972 by Chung Ju-yung as a division ...

and commissioned on 30 December 1980. She was decommissioned on 30 December 2014 and placed above ground in Ulsan City as a

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulsan (FF-951) 1980 ships Ulsan-class frigates Frigates of the Republic of Korea Navy Museum ships in South Korea Ships built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Group