S. Korea starts building new 3,000-ton submarine
2016/12/14 11:08
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Wednesday kicked off a project to build a 3,000-ton submarine equipped with ballistic missiles, the state arms procurement agency said.
The third vessel of the Chang Bogo-III batch 1 ships is part of the country's three-stage plan to make a total of nine subs with indigenous technology by 2027 to strengthen its maritime capacity against growing threats from North Korea.
Officials from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) discussed details of the project on the day during a meeting with its manufacturer Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.
The new vessel is estimated to cost 630 billion won (U$540.3 million) and take 85 months to build, it added.
The batch 1 vessels will have six vertical missile launch tubes that could house the Hyunmoo-2 short-range ballistic missile with a range of more than 500 kilometers.
Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., the world's No. 3 shipyard, built the first and second subs of the batch 1 models.
The South Korean military plans to deploy new submarines starting in 2020 to replace its aging fleet of 1,200-ton subs that have been in service since 1992.
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