S. Korean Navy Sejong (KDX III) destroyers
- Thread starter samba
- Start date
Janes has nothing to do with classifying ships. Each individual country classifies ships. As an example the US does not call its LHDs & LHAs carriers as most other nations would. The same goes for the US Arliegh Burke class DDGs which most nations would call a cruiser.
And yes politics does play into this ship classification. For instance the new Japanese DDH ships are Helicopter destroyers when in fact they are pocket aircraft carriers.
Hey Popeye. I'm not saying that Janes classifies ships for governments. However, when a destroyer is a cruiser... I would hope that Janes would classify it as such on it's pages. As for the Burkes... they are the same size as a WWII CL. But I think Congress might have a cow if the navy asked for double digit light cruisers. 
...and frankly I don't think anyone looks at those Japanese carriers and thinks "destroyer". Anyway... IMHO warship classification is a mess these days.
...and frankly I don't think anyone looks at those Japanese carriers and thinks "destroyer". Anyway... IMHO warship classification is a mess these days.
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antiterror13
Brigadier
it wouldn't change anything, Korean navy wouldn't be able to protect the sea lanes beyond Taiwan, let alone South China Sea and Indian ocean. The key is US Navy, it protects all the sea lanes
antiterror13
Brigadier
Really ? ... I thought they are relatively food self sufficient.
What is Korean' food self sufficient ratio ? .... I know China's food self sufficient ratio is over 95%, it is set by Chinese govt policy. Japan has a very low ratio, something like 46%
pugachev_diver
Banned Idiot
It is still imported from China, in fact the cold climate caused a kimchi shortage scare in SK. Even the cabbage price is affected in China because they wanted to ship them to Korea instead for a higher profit.
Well I only emphasised cabbages because of the cold climate they were very angry at Lee Myung-bak administration during the food crisis mainly because of the rise in cabbages price. I still think Korea will go back to grow there own cabbages because they are very picky about the taste since Kimchi is the main and icon of Korean cuisine.
pugachev_diver
Banned Idiot
South Korea is too tiny and barely has any usable land. The whole Korean peninsula is just like Japan, already super small and have too many mountains. Another thing is that its labour cost is way too high. As much as South Korea and Japan don't like China, they cannot survive without importing food from it.
The South Korean navy is also too weak to defend its own interest. Everyone here knows that Japan has a leash on its neck installed by Uncle Sam, but not many notice that Korea is also an occupied country to a great extent. You just never hear it on paper. Although Uncle Sam didn't write anything in South Korea's constitution indicating it cannot have offensive capabilities, there are other treaties and charters serving the same purpose as those in the Japanese constitution.
The most prominent one is the limit on missiles over 300km range. (Don't ask me where I got this from, I heard it from a video of weekly analysis, made by think tank similar to Jane's, forgot the actual name of it)
Another thing about Korea is that it is too small. Like most small nations, it may be advanced in few things but will lack in most major areas. In fact, even a lot of things Korea seems to be advanced in, are still really not their own. They are just sub-contractors of those major international conglomerates. It is too backwards in the heavy industry sector. Remember that failed space rocket? It was actually a joint venture between them and the Russians. The Russian-made first stage worked completely fine, but the Korean stage exploded as soon as it was turned on.
South Korea to a great extent is no better than what China was in the early 90s. It is still mainly a subcontractor for other countries, there are barely anything that is truly Korean. In fact, even the Chinese shipyards are doing better than the Koreans, as China actually developed a lot of the things used on its ships, whereas the Koreans only manufacture the shell. Even this King Sejeong The Great class destroyers uses engines from GE, missiles from Raytheon and Aegis system from Lockheed Martin.