"South Korea's Planned New Aircraft Carrier May Have A" Topic

…Distinctly British Flavor

"Seoul (CNN)South Korea's planned aircraft carrier could have a distinctly British flavor. In fact, it could be a mini version of the Queen Elizabeth.

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) this week signed a memorandum of understanding with top British defense contractor, Babcock International, to work together to design and build the new CVX, South Korea's light aircraft carrier.

"This partnership is to collate the core technologies of the two companies to win an order for the basic design of a light aircraft carrier and to build a ship. Hyundai Heavy Industries and Babcock had successfully completed the conceptual design, the first stage of ship design, last year," a statement from Hyundai said…"

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Hyundai says the 30,000-ton level ship would be 260 meters (850 feet) long and 57 meters (187 feet) wide. By comparison, the UK's Queen Elizabeth class is 65,000 tons, 920 feet long and has a beam of 240 feet…

Armand

Having a hard time seeing the necessity for this. Can anyone explain?

There is a great line from a pretty mediocre movie, "Other People's Money."

"Having lawyers is like having nuclear weapons. If you have them, people respect you, but if you actually use them, they ruin everything."

Aircraft Carriers are the non nuclear nukes.

The Korean Peninsula has a lot of coast and I seem to remember carriers playing a disproportionately large role the last time the North invaded. Also the South's air bases are all going to be on the target list for the North's missiles – those that aren't actually within range for tube artillery.

So basically a Amphib assault ship.

Because they no longer have a relievable ally.

Nice looking ship! Naval forces in the Far East are growing to counter the Chinese threat.

Yes, don't see the ROK would really need this. Unless they plan on defending Japan or Taiwan vs. the PRC/CCP ?

The Korean Peninsula has a lot of coast and I seem to remember carriers playing a disproportionately large role the last time the North invaded. Also the South's air bases are all going to be on the target list for the North's missiles – those that aren't actually within range for tube artillery.

Very true it may also be useful if there is an invasion of the North ? But that seems unlikely at this time or in the near future ?

Shutting down the North's massive missiles and long ranged FA could give them the "first shot" advantage. But after that they will certainly get large/massive return fires. Then whatever advantage they have may be over.

However, that fire shot could do a lot of damage. Primarily to Seoul at this time. But could also damage some ROK forces as well …

Spent 22 months in a forward deployed Mech Bn/2ID in the ROK, '84-'85. We would get reports on "commandos" from the North attacking along the large coast of Korea. Always ended up with all of them being dead. We saw the photos from the ROKs. The North denied everything of course ..

Everyone wants a carrier.

It's the new status symbol for nations and their leaders, to show they ARE truly a force to be reckoned with, regardless of their actual utility for the countries in question, whether they can even operate jet aircraft successfully on their own from them (yes, I'm looking at China and the UK here), and whether they can actually defend them from attack (as previously mentioned).

Everyone wants a carrier.

Yes, like Battleships of old they certainly are a status symbol, etc. However, the $/
"won"[ROK money] may be better spent else where on their military ?

Apparently the SKs also have a new sub-launched, ballistic missile, but no nuke-tip for it, making it the only ballistic missile without such a warhead.

Of course, the Iranians are developing ballistic missiles too, and possibly they don't have nuke tips for them yet either, but no SLBMs that I'm aware of.

Of course, they could already hove some nuke warheads for them too, since for the last 30 years we've been warned by "the experts" that they are only 6 months away from developing one. My guess is they've probably already got 12 – 20+ now. Perhaps not Iranian made, but I suspect North Korea, the Chinese, and/or the Pakistanis might have sold them some. Perhaps even the Russians too.

Republic of Korea Navy launches new Daegu-class frigate Pohang

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Armand