Five years ago with the advent of the KD1 destoyers, I think it was pretty clear that 1:1 South Korean warships were ahead of the PLAN.
The KD-2 is a very impressive destroyer and the KD-3 will of course be an AEGIS warship. The recent long range cruise missile tests and indiginous anti-ship missile developments suggest that ROKN is continuing on the upward trend.
But has PLAN caught up or even passed them? :coffee:
I guess it all depends on which area you are looking at. There are some areas that ROKN really can't compete with PLAN like having nuclear subs, large aircraft carriers (assuming that Varyag/or some indigenous one goes in service), experiment ships and replenishment ships.
but we can compare some areas where they both have vessells.
In terms of destroyers, a good indication will be when 052D (or whatever the 052C descendent is called) comes out. It would be interesting at that to compare KDX-3 with 052D.
In terms of submarines, the u-214s should be superior to any diesel subs that PLAN has.
And then for amphibious platforms, we have Dokdo class vs 071, Dokdo class probably wins out due to its ability to hold helicopters and superior air defense suite. And until 071 actually shows what kind of LCAC it uses, Dokdo wins in that area too.
For frigate, it's quite a mismatch to compare Ulsan class to 054A. So, let's just compare 054A to KDX-1. I would say that the air defense tilts to 054A with 2 Type 730 vs 2 Goalkeeper and 32 HH-16 vs 16 Sea Sparrow (not ESSM). ASuW power is about the same with 8 YJ-83s vs 8 Harpoon, but 054A does have OTH targetting with that Bandstand clone. 054A also looks far more stealthy. 054A does win out, but 054A is only coming out now, whereas KDX-1 came out in 98.
if we compare 054AB to KDX-2, you have a more even match up, both have relatively stealthy hull, KDX-2 has slightly better air defense with RAM + goalkeeper + 32 ESSM compared to 2 Type 730 + 32 HH-16. But after KDX-2 got SM-2, it clearly is the more advanced ship.
So, I guess after a little comparison, Koreans do have a technological advantage over PLAN, but PLAN has far more shipping classes than ROKN.