There will also be a KDDX.
South Korea's DAPA has confirmed to Naval News that Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) signed the Basic Design contract for the KDDX program at the end of 2020.
www.navalnews.com
With a displacement of 6,500 tons, KDDX will be smaller than the 7,600 tons Aegis destroyers. They are still being referred to as a “mini Aegis ship” because of their ability to intercept missiles and perform the tasks of the Aegis ships.
The size of the KDDX is between that of the Chungmugong-Yi-Sunsin-class KDX destroyer and the Sejong-great-class Aegis destroyer, with a length of 156 meters and a width of 19 meters. The ship will feature a 127mm main gun, 16 surface-to-surface guided missiles known as Haesung or recently successful supersonic anti-ship missiles, 64 KVLS-I and
KVLS-II cells, and a
naval variant of the L- SAM air defense and anti-ballistic missiles. For close-in protection, KDDX will be fitted with the future
CIWS-II by LIG Nex1.
The next generation destroyer will also be fitted with a new combat management system and an integrated mast (I-Mast) with multi-function radar (MFR) featuring dual S/X band phase arrays. Both systems are being developed by
Hanwha Systems who won a competitive tender against LIG Nex1 back in September 2020.
HHI and DSME (Daewoo Shipbuilding and Maritime Engineering)
submitted proposals to DAPA’s KDDX basic design tender, which was comprised of total 100 scores (80 for technology, 20 for costs). HHI won over DSME with a narrow score of a decimal point.
The ROK Navy plans to procure a total of 18 destroyers by the late 2020s and create a large-sized fleet composed of :
The KDX III: