South Korean Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

TerraN_EmpirE

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Om the otherside.
New North Korea warships seen in satellite images
May. 15, 2014 - 05:04PM |


The Associated Press
FILED UNDER
News
World News
WASHINGTON — Recent satellite images show two new North Korean frigates, the largest surface combat ships the nation’s navy has constructed in a quarter-century, a North Korea-watching website reported Thursday.

The website, 38 North , says the frigates are designed to carry one helicopter each and appear to be designed to counter South Korean submarines and protect fisheries. The vessels appear to be equipped with anti-submarine rocket launchers.

The vessels can be seen in commercial satellite images from December and January. One is berthed at a shipyard in the west coast port of Nampo, other at a shipyard at the northeastern port of Nanjin.

It is unclear whether the frigates are yet ready for service.

The website is associated with the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The analysis is by Joseph Bermudez, an expert in satellite imagery analysis and North Korea’s military.

Bermudez notes that North Korea has been able to construct the vessels and other naval combat ships over the past decade despite international economic sanctions and reported industrial and economic stagnation.

Bermudez writes it will still likely take several years to integrate the frigates’ capabilities into its fleet operations.

“North Korea’s deployment of new helicopter frigates may be an important wakeup call not only about the overall effectiveness of sanctions in constraining Pyongyang’s conventional military programs, but also the need to carefully and realistically reevaluate reports of its conventional military decline,” he said.

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corp., said that the two new frigates would be bigger and more capable than the rest of North Korea’s surface fleet, which is viewed by many in the region as weak. While North Korea has a large submarine force and many patrol craft, it has little in the way of higher-end surface ships like frigates and destroyers, he said.

“Adding these two ships will not cause North Korea to have a very strong navy. If involved in a big conflict, the U.S. and South Korean navies and air forces could pretty quickly sink these ships,” Bennett told The Associated Press.

The U.S. has nearly 30,000 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended without a formal peace treaty.

Bennett said that by investing in the frigates, the North’s authoritarian regime may be seeking to consolidate the internal support among naval personnel.

Bermudez said the vessels might also be used to protect fisheries in view of increasing pressure from South Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Russian fishing fleets.

Much of the international focus on North Korea is on its development of weapons of mass destruction, including speculation it may be readying its fourth nuclear test. But with tensions between the two Koreas running high, many analysts say the greatest risk of conflict lies in the North provoking the South with a conventional attack.

In 2010, South Korea accused North Korea of using a submarine to torpedo the South Korean ship Cheonan, killing 46 sailors.
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Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Re: ASEAN military news

There's been some reporting recently on a new development in North Korea surface Navy. The North Korean surface Navy is old, and antiquated for the most part. The only real exception to this, unitl recently, was the single, catamaran Soho Class Corvette which displaced 1,650 tons which was launched in 1982. It was a realtively modern design for the time. but they only built one and there were rumors of it having numerous problems. It could land one helo, but had no hanger.


soho-01.jpg

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Then in late December, a newer, larger frigate was seen at the Namp'o ship yards. This was in December 2013. In January 2014, another, seperate FFH was seen at Nanjin, Shipyard No. 28. This was a seperate vessel and had probably been launched earlier. They are being called the Namp'o Class frigate at the current time for lack of an actual name, and appear to have a helo pad and hanger. Final armament is not yet known.


nampo-01.jpg


nampo-02.jpg

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Interesting development. None of these vessels are any real threat to the South Korean (or any of its allies) surface fleets. but they may be of use to the North Korans for coastal ASW work, and for ishery and other maritime patrols
 
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TerraN_EmpirE

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Re: ASEAN military news

Jeff Head said:
Interesting development. None of these vessels are any real threat to the South Korean (or any of its allies) surface fleets. but they may be of use to the North Korans for coastal ASW work, and for ishery and other maritime patrols
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Jeff what do you think the prospects are for his Royal Un-ness developing a indigenous destroyer in say, My life time?
 
Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Re: ASEAN military news

TerraN_EmpirE said:
Jeff what do you think the prospects are for his Royal Un-ness developing a indigenous destroyer in say, My life time?
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It would be a race between them and the Iranians. I'd say the Iranians are just a little bit ahead...but would not hold my breath for either of them developing a 6-8,000 ton true destroyer in the foreseeable future.
 
P

PanAsian

Major
Jura said:
The South Korean Coast Guard "dismantled" by the female ROK President ... I found this info first on some Czech server so I thought something got lost in translation, but check this:
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already picked up by Wiki
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That's pretty drastic to dismantle the entire coast guard just for botching one rescue operation, and before this I haven't heard any evidence reported that the coast guard was doing a particularly bad job with the rescue, just that they were the pressure valve target for victims' families.

I wonder if the coast guard was responsible for passing the ferry's improper modifications and/or it overloading cargo. If so it would make more sense that the entire coast guard is dismantled, in an attempt to both clean house as well as minimize the incompetence and/or corruption scandal that must have already broke.
 
Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
PanAsian said:
That's pretty drastic to dismantle the entire coast guard just for botching one rescue operation, and before this I haven't heard any evidence reported that the coast guard was doing a particularly bad job.

...to both clean house as well as minimize the incompetence and/or corruption scandal that must have already broke.
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It's political.

She has to be shown as doing something.

She is not actually dismantling the operations or the vessels. She is just transferring them to another agency that she is creating where the same functions will be carried out under new leadership.

She is indicating that she believes there is mismanagement and in some cases corruption and this move she believes will help alleviate it.

We shall see.

But the alarmists indicating that Korea will no longer have a Coast Guard are misinformed. It just will not have that name anymore. Instead it will be called the Department of National Safety.

S. Korean President said:
...the rescue and salvage operation and ocean security roles will be transferred to the department for national safety which will be newly established."
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asif iqbal

asif iqbal

Lieutenant General
South Korean navy is one hell of a naval force has anyone seen the expansion plans? Wow

JMSDF is also a very professional, lean and mean force both country's very good at what they do and have one of the best naval shipyards industry's in the world
 
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