''Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin'' class destroyers (,

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, wh ...

: 忠武公李舜臣級驅逐艦) are multipurpose

destroyer 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 ...

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 in ...

. The lead ship of this class, ROKS ''Chungmugong Yi Sunsin'', was launched in May 2002 and commissioned in December 2003. ''Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin''-class destroyers were the second class of ships to be produced in the

's destroyer mass-production program named

Korean Destroyer eXperimental KDX (Korean Destroyer eXperimental) is a substantial shipbuilding program embarked on by the Republic of Korea Navy. It is a three-phased program consisting of three individual classes of ships: * KDX-I (3,800 tons), * KDX-II (5,500 tons), * ...

, which paved the way for the navy to become a blue-water navy. Six ships were launched by Hyundai Heavy Industries and

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd ( ko, 대우조선해양; abbreviated DSME) is one of the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea, along with Hyundai and Samsung. History On 21 February 2011, the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group (M ...

in four years.

Weapon systems

The ships have a 32-cell strike-length Mk 41 VLS for SM-2 Block IIIA area-air defence missiles, one 21-round

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

inner-layer defence missile launcher, one 30 mm

Goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

close-in weapon system, one Mk 45 Mod 4 127 mm gun, eight

Harpoon A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, seal hunting, 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 t ...

anti-ship missiles and two triple 324 mm anti-submarine torpedo tubes. The electronics suite includes one Raytheon

AN/SPS-49 The AN/SPS-49 is a United States Navy two-dimensional, long range air search radar built by Raytheon that can provide contact bearing and range. It is a primary air-search radar for numerous ships in the U.S. fleet and in Spain, Poland, Taiwan abo ...

(V)5 2D long-range radar (LRR), one

Thales Nederland Thales Nederland B.V. (formerly Hollandse Signaalapparaten B.V. or in short Signaal) is a subsidiary of the French multinational company Thales Group based in the Netherlands. The firm was founded as ''NV Hazemeyer's Fabriek van Signaalapparaten ...

MW08 Thales Naval Nederland (formerly Signaal) MW08Waters, Conrad. Seaforth World Naval Review 2017, Naval Institute Press, 2016 is a G-band passive electronically scanned array target indication 3D radar, part of the 3D multibeam 'SMART' (Signal Mu ...

target indication 3D radar (TIR), two Thales Nederland STIR240

fire-control radar A fire-control radar (FCR) is a radar that is designed specifically to provide information (mainly target azimuth, elevation, range and range rate) to a fire-control system in order to direct weapons such that they hit a target. They are sometim ...

s with OT-134A

Continuous Wave A continuous wave or continuous waveform (CW) is an electromagnetic wave of constant amplitude and frequency, typically a sine wave, that for mathematical analysis is considered to be of infinite duration. It may refer to e.g. a laser or particle ...

Illumination (CWI) transmitters, an SLQ-200(V)K SONATA electronic warfare system and a KDCOM-II combat management system which is derived from the Royal Navy

Type 23 frigate The Type 23 frigate or Duke class is a class of frigates built for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The ships are named after British Dukes, thus leading to the class being commonly known as the Duke class. The first Type 23, , was commission ...

's SSCS combat management system.

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

WDS Mk 14 originally developed for the US Navy's

New Threat Upgrade New Threat Upgrade (NTU) was a United States Navy program to improve and modernize the capability of existing cruisers and destroyers equipped with Terrier and Tartar anti-aircraft systems, keeping them in service longer. The Program was select ...

evaluates threats, prioritizes them, and engages them in order with SM-2. On the 4th unit, ROKS ''Wang Geon'', the 32-cell Mk 41 VLS is moved to the left and an indigenous VLS named K-VLS is installed on the right. The ship's forward part is spacious enough to take a 56-cell Mk 41 VLS.

Design

The KDX-II is part of a much larger build up program aimed at turning the ROKN into a blue-water navy. It is said to be the first stealthy major combatant in the ROKN and was designed to significantly increase the ROKN's capabilities.

Ships in the class

Gallery

File:ROKS Munmu the Great (DDH 976).jpg, ROKS ''Munmu the Great'' (DDH-976) during RIMPAC 2006 File:RoK warship Dae Jo Yeong (DDG 977).jpg, ROKS ''Dae Jo Yeong'' (DDH-977) being guided into Naval Base San Diego File:ROKS Kang Gamchan steams by a line of ROK Navy ships during the International Fleet Review.jpg, ROKS ''Kang Gamchan'' (DDH-979) during International Fleet Review File:Choi Young (DDH-981) cropped.jpg, ROKS ''Choi Young'' (DDH-981) during joint exercise "Invincible Spirit"

Variants

KDX-IIA

KDX-IIA KDX-IIA is an Aegis Combat System armed variant of the KDX-II, of the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN). As of 2011 ROKN planned to build at least 6 ships of this class with a proposed displacement of 5500 ~ 7500 tons over the 2019 to 2026 time fr ...

is a proposed variant of the KDX-II. It will be armed with the advanced

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 ...

and will have enhanced features of KDX-II such as stealth. The ship has been offered to the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

Arsenal ship

On August 14, 2019, the

Ministry of National Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

unveiled a five year defense plan between 2020 and 2024. The defense plan called for two new naval projects to be developed: the

LPX-II-Class Aircraft Carrier The CVX (formerly known as LPX-II, Hangul: 대형수송함-II) is a class of aircraft carriers currently under development for the Republic of Korea Navy. The class is follow-on from the previous s which prioritized amphibious capability while ...

and an

arsenal ship An arsenal ship is a concept for a floating missile platform intended to have as many as five hundred vertical launch bays for mid-sized missiles, most likely cruise missiles. In current U.S. naval thinking, such a ship would initially be cont ...

. The design of the arsenal ship is said to be based on the KDX-II destroyer and is expected to be completed by the late 2020s.