South Korean Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

JMSDF Atago AEGIS Upgrade


S. Korean Se Jong AEGIS Upgrade
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SeaWaves said:

August 15, 2016 - The global Aegis fleet will expand in the U.S., Japan and the Republic of Korea under a $490 million deal with Lockheed Martin to bring integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) capabilities to new destroyers.

The ships will be equipped with Aegis Baseline 9, the latest evolution of the combat system, capable of IAMD. The Aegis system includes Lockheed Martin's SPY-1 radar, the Navy's most advanced multi-function radar system. When paired with the MK 41 Vertical Launching System, it is capable of delivering missiles for every mission and threat environment in naval warfare.

"Lockheed Martin has a proud record of working hand-in-hand with the U.S. Navy, Japanese Maritime Self Defense Forces and the Republic of Korea Navy," said Jim Sheridan, director of Lockheed Martin Aegis U.S. Navy programs. "We will continue the Lockheed Martin tradition of providing Aegis on-time and on-budget so these destroyers are prepared to meet the evolving demands of securing the U.S. homeland and its allies."

This contract comes on the heels of a successful joint-missile defense exercise in June in which Aegis destroyers from the three nations shared data while detecting and tracking a simulated missile threat.

Under this new production hardware contract, Lockheed Martin will expand the Aegis fleet in the U.S. Navy and in:

• Japan: The seventh and eighth Aegis ships will join Japan's fleet. Aegis provides four of Japan's Kongo-class destroyers and two Atago-class destroyers with advanced sea, air and undersea threat detection capabilities. The Self Defense Forces of Japan joined the Aegis family in 1993.

• Republic of Korea (RoK): Aegis will join the next three KDX-III Sejong the Great Class destroyers, a multi-purpose destroyer with air and land defense and anti-submarine capabilities. Aegis is aboard three KDX-III destroyers: RoK Sejong the Great, RoK Yulgok Yi I and RoK Seoae Ryu Sungryong, which are the largest surface warfare ships to carry Aegis.

The Republic of Korea joined the international Aegis fleet in 2008, when the navy commissioned the first ship of the class, Sejong the Great.

As the Aegis Combat System Engineering Agent, Lockheed Martin continues to develop new Aegis capabilities and find innovative ways to deploy them across the more than 100 ships in the U.S. and international Aegis Fleets. This innovation is possible in part due to the open architecture of the Aegis Combat System and the Common Source Library, which allows engineers to integrate new systems and capabilities across baselines, as well as affordably distribute the upgrades throughout the fleet in a "build once, use many times" design philosophy.

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Jura said:

according to USNI News Report: South Korea Wants BMD Capability for Guided Missile Destroyers

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A trio of planned South Korean guided missile destroyers will be built with the capability to intercept ballistic missile threats, USNI News has learned.

The addition of the capability will give the Republic of Korea (RoK) Navy a powerful organic BMD capability in addition to U.S. Army ground-based interceptors peppered throughout South Korea.

Under the plan, the three remaining ships in the Sejong the Great-class will be able to simultaneously intercept traditional air warfare threats while adding a ballistic missile defense capability through a series of hardware and software upgrades over the current class of ship, several sources confirmed to USNI News.

The destroyers will be fitted with the U.S. Navy’s Baseline 9 version of the Aegis Combat System that combines modern computing architecture to allow the ship’s AN/SPY-1D(v) radar to detect and track aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles at the same time.

The capability will likely be paired with

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the ships can pair with the combat system to detect and destroy medium-range ballistic missile threats. Several Korean press outlets have reported the military is seeking to install SM-3s on the three new ships.

Officials with Aegis combat system developer Lockheed Martin told USNI News the new Korean ships would have an “integrated air and missile defense” (IAMD) capability installed aboard but would not elaborate on any other details of the combat system.

IAMD is a term used widely by the U.S. Navy to describe the ability of an Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer to perform the traditional air warfare and BMD missions at the same time using the Baseline 9 combat system.

The first three Sejong the Great destroyers are fitted with Aegis Baseline 7, which is based on older proprietary computers, that aren’t able to carry out IAMD operations.

In addition to the South Korean Navy, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) is upgrading their Aegis destroyers with a

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News of the planned RoK Navy capability comes as North Korea steadily improves its ballistic missile technology from both ground station and from submarines. In addition to a

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, North Korean forces also launched three medium-range ballistic missiles

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.

“In light of recent North Korean efforts to bolster offensive missile capabilities, it now makes a lot of sense for the South Koreans to consider the potential acquisition of defensive SM-3s to arm their Aegis warships and to boost ballistic missile defense capabilities,” Eric Wertheim author of

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told USNI News on last month.

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Jura said:

Aug 15, 2016
related:
New South Korean Destroyers to Have Ballistic Missile Defense Capability

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The planned U.S. deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea is not negotiable as part of efforts to agree new U.N. sanctions on North Korea after its fifth nuclear test, but Washington is confident tougher steps will be agreed before long, the senior U.S. diplomat for Asia said on Friday.

China, whose full backing is widely seen as crucial for sanctions on North Korea to be effective, is strongly opposed to the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system and some experts have argued it should be part of talks on new U.N. measures.

Asked whether THAAD was negotiable, Daniel Russel, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia, referred to a U.S.-South Korean agreement on the deployment.

"No. The two countries have made a decision," he told Reuters.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, meeting Southeast Asian leaders in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, said the United States would "do whatever is necessary to defend our own citizens and to honor our security commitments to our allies."

Discussions are under way on a possible new U.N. sanctions resolution on North Korea after it conducted its fifth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 9.

Russel later told a news briefing discussions were still at an early stage, but he was confident that a new U.N. resolution would be agreed before long, imposing further sanctions and tightening existing ones.

Among the aims, he said, would be to prevent North Korea's abuse of international infrastructure, including banking and shipping, to further its nuclear program.

China is North Korea's main ally, but has been angered by its repeated missile and nuclear tests and backed tough U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang in March.

QUESTIONS REMAIN

Beijing has said it will work within the United Nations to formulate a necessary response to the latest nuclear test, but questions remain as to whether it is willing to agree tough enough steps to force North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons.

Two experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for International Studies last week argued that if China were to agree to serious graduated sanctions on North Korea, the United States could agree to freeze the number of ground-based missile interceptors on the Korean Peninsula.

Eric Heginbotham and Richard Samuels said that as part of a set of incentives to China, Washington "might also agree, after consulting South Korea, to withdraw THAAD from the peninsula when North Korean nuclear weapons no longer pose a threat."

On Monday, Washington said U.S. President Barack Obama and China's Premier Li Keqiang agreed in a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. assembly to step up cooperation in the U.N. Security Council and in law enforcement channels.

China's Foreign Ministry later said a Chinese conglomerate, the Liaoning Hongxiang Group was under investigation following the provisions of the sanctions agreed in March.

In his General Assembly speech on Thursday, South Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se accused North Korea of "totally ridiculing" the United Nations through its nuclear and missile tests and said it was time to reconsider whether it was qualified for U.N. membership.

Russel said it was "not unnatural" that such questions should be raised. He stopped short of endorsing the call, but added:

"The international system is being exploited by (North Korea) ... for the purpose of pursuing an illegal nuclear and missiles program that threatens both its neighbors and regional peace and security."

North Korean Foreign minister Ri Yong Ho was defiant in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, vowing that the communist state would strengthen its nuclear weapons capability and never give it up while it was threatened by nuclear-armed states.

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Naval Today said:

South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) has launched the nation’s first FF-II guided-missile frigate at its Geoje shipyard.

The ship was named Daegu and received pennant number 818 during a ceremony held June 2.

Displacing 2800 tonnes, the new frigate measures 122 meters in length and can reach speeds of 30 knots, DSME said.

According to the South Korean News agency Yonhap News, the improved Incheon-class frigate is capable of hitting targets on North Korean territory.

Daegu will be equipped with a 16-cell Korean vertical launching system for defense against air threats and six torpedo tubes for anti-submarine warfare, IHS Jane’s wrote.

DSME said the ship would delivered to the Navy in 2017 and is expected to become operational in the second half of 2018.

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Naval Today said:

In response to recent North Korean provocations, the U.S. and Republic of Korea navies (ROKN) joined forces to stage a naval drill East of the Korean Peninsula and send the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “a strong message of unified resolve against continuing acts of aggression”.

On September 26, U.S. Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) joined ROKN Aegis destroyers, submarines, anti-submarine helicopters, and U.S. and ROKN P-3 patrol aircraft in the operation that highlighted the unified naval force capabilities in defense of the Republic of Korea and region from surface, subsurface, and ballistic missile threats.

“This operation showcases the unwavering strength and resolve of the U.S. and ROK navies,” said Rear Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Korea and Task Force 78. “We work side-by-side with our ROK partners every day; we are by their side today at sea, and we will remain by their side to defend against North Korea’s unprovoked acts of aggression.”

“Our ROK-US alliance will counter the North Korean nuclear development and SLBM threats with determination,” said Vice Adm. Lee, Ki-sik, commander of the Republic of Korea Fleet

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SouthernSky said:

US says THAAD deployment not negotiable.



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I'd agree with the experts suggesting that the deployment of THAAD to South Korea could form part of negotiations with China. I was always of the belief that it was a twofold play by the US government.

The commitment from China would need to be firm and significant if the THAAD deployment were not to go ahead though and at this stage I don't think it's realistic for it not to occur.

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A private golf course in South Korea's southeast has been chosen as the new site for an advanced U.S. missile defense system to be deployed by the end of next year to protect against North Korean threats, Seoul's Defense Ministry said Friday.

South Korean military officials in July originally picked a nearby artillery base in the rural farming town of Seongju as the site for the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD.

But Seongju residents fiercely protested the plan, expressing concern over potential health hazards they believe the system's powerful radar might cause.

The golf course owned by South Korea's Lotte business group is also within Seongju, but located farther from the town's main residential areas. However, residents of Gimcheon city, which borders the course, have protested the expected move.

The new site was selected after a month-long inspection and was approved by the defense ministers of both the United States and South Korea, Seoul's Defense Ministry said in a statement. A ministry note provided to lawmakers described the golf course as ideal because it would require less construction than two other possible sites that were on mountains.

The ministry plans to start discussions on buying the course from Lotte, which said in a statement that it will "positively consider" the proposal.

"We sincerely request the people of our country and residents in concerned areas to understand our patriotism and provide us support," the ministry said.

Ministry officials began exploring alternative sites after President Park Geun-hye promised in August to consider a new location to "lessen the anxiety" of residents in Seongju. Weeks earlier, angry protesters had pelted her prime minister with eggs and plastic bottles and blocked his bus for several hours during a visit to Seongju to explain the decision to residents.

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they need the missile system to better deal with increasing North Korean military threats. After North Korea conducted its

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to date earlier this month, experts raised worries that the country is moving closer toward gaining the ability to put nuclear warheads on a variety of ballistic missiles.

The plan to deploy THAAD in South Korea has angered not only North Korea but also China, which suspects that the system would allow U.S. radar to better track its missiles. Russia also opposes the deployment.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular briefing Friday that China continues to oppose the deployment.

"The United States deploying THAAD in South Korea not only does not serve the purposes it seeks, it also affects the security in the region as well as China's," Geng said. "We urge both sides to reconsider this move."

U.S. and South Korean officials say the THAAD system targets only North Korea.

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