– Naval News – South Korea’s 2021-2025 defense blueprint which was revealed yesterday provides some fresh details on the plans to develop an aircraft carrier capability for the Republic of Korea (RoK) Navy: The LPX-II project will be a dedicated light aircraft carrier for F-35B, it will not be an amphibious assault ship.

– Maritime Bulletin – On Jul 17 Korean media reported minor collision between car carrier Hoegh London and Korean Navy submarine.

(Thanks to Alain)

– US Naval War College Review – The United States must choose whether it will oppose or support South Korea’s emerging SSN program. While the strategic risks the program represents are readily apparent, the United States should support and assist its ally if South Korea pursues acquisition of SSNs.

– Naval News – Despite the COVID-19 crisis, South Korea’s defense budget remains mostly unaffected. Budget reductions in the “2020-2024 mid-term defense acquisition plan” will be limited to programs deemed as “non essential” and to a limited number of foreign procurement programs.

– BMPD – The South Korean Navy received four new-type PKX-B missile boats (Patrol Killer Experimental B) PKMR 216 Chamsuri-216, PKMR 217 Chamsuri-217, PKMR 218 Chamsuri-218, PKMR 219 Chamsuri-219. (In Russian)

(Thanks to Alain)

– Defense News – South Korea is to launch a new version of a large-deck landing ship from which short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing aircraft can operate by the late 2020s, amid naval buildups in China and Japan.

– Naval News – The DSME-built submarine ‘Dosan Ahn Chang-ho’ started its seat trials from Opko shipyard on June 10, 2019. It is the first vessel of the KSS-III Batch I program for the Republic of Korea Navy (RoK Navy).

Thanks to Alain!

– Defense News – In a critical step toward developing its naval capabilities, South Korea plans to construct three more 7,600-ton destroyers equipped with American-made Aegis combat systems and sophisticated ballistic missile interceptors.

– Defense News – The South Korean military has decided to buy ship-based SM-3 interceptors to thwart potential ballistic missile attacks from North Korea.

– Reuters – South Korea’s military has picked Boeing Co (BA.N) to supply the country’s maritime patrol aircraft in a contract worth around 1.9 trillion won ($1.71 billion).

– CIMSEC – Great power competition and arms races are back, especially in Asia. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Asia and Oceania countries in 2017 were responsible for 27 percent of global military expenditures. In absolute numbers it totalled U.S. $477 billion. Three out of the 15 top spenders are located in North East Asia: China ($228 billion), Japan ($45.4 billion), and South Korea ($39.2 billion).

– Defense News – The South Korean Navy launched its second 14,500-ton Dokdo-class amphibious assault ship on May 14 as the landing vessel’s mission shifts more toward blue-water operations than countering North Korea, whose relations with the South has been improving following the April 27 cross-border summit.

– War Zone – South Korea’s Navy is looking into the practical and political feasibility of domestic design and production of a nuclear-powered submarine. The study comes amid heightened tensions with North Korea and concerns about that country’s own submarine-launched ballistic missile developments, but could further strain relationships on the Peninsula and beyond and could prove to be technically complex and expensive without a clear imperative to develop such a boat in the first place.

– Yon Hap News – South Korea said Friday it has begun the construction of another large-scale amphibious landing ship to be used by the country’s Navy.

– US Naval War College Review – This article considers the options open to the Republic of Korea’s Navy, in the context of its maritime cooperation with the US Navy, to deal with the new intractable North Korean SLBM threat.

– Aviation Week – The North Korean submarine threat looked bad enough after the torpedoing of a South Korean corvette in 2010. It has looked a good deal more serious since, as North Korea has worked to deploy nuclear ballistic missiles in submarines. All of this is making a South Korean program to buy additional maritime patrollers a rising priority. The likely contenders are now the Boeing P-8 Poseiden and Saab’s proposed Swordfish, based on the Bombardier Global 6000. The navy has dropped a plan to buy and refurbish 16 Lockheed Martin S-3 Vikings, shifting its focus to the possible order for new aircraft.

– Janes – The Republic of Korea Navy (RoKN) and US Navy (USN) have completed a five-day bilateral anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercise that included surface, subsurface, and airborne assets in the Philippine Sea close to Guam.

– AP – Warships from the rival Koreas exchanged warning shots Tuesday after a North Korean ship briefly violated the disputed western sea boundary, a South Korean defense official said.

– USNI News – The Korean War of 1950-1953 was concluded by a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, and the three powers—South Korea, North Korea and the United States—are still technically at war. A new conflict on the Korean peninsula would see the commitment of a new, reinvigorated Republic of Korea Navy, an aging, weakened North Korean Navy and an American fleet providing the only ballistic missile defense capability for the region.

– War is Boring – Seoul has bought itself a fancy new navy, but at the expense of troops guarding the peninsula.

– BBC – South Korea has deployed two warships with missile-defence systems, reports say, a day after the North apparently moved a missile to its east coast.

– BBC – South Korea and the US have begun three days of naval exercises in what is being seen as a show of force aimed at North Korea.

– US Naval War College Review – Since its provocations against Yeonpyeong Island on 23 November 2010, North Korea’s asymmetric threats have emerged as one of the most momentous security issues for the Republic of Korea (ROK). After bitter defeats in the First and Second Yeonpyeong Sea Battles, as well as in the Daechung Sea Battle of No- vember 2009, North Korea recognized its disadvantage in symmetric surface-ship provocations. It resorted instead to new and unexpected tactics, utilizing its latest small submarine to torpedo ROKS Cheonan on 26 March 2010.