South Korea to launch 2nd homegrown 3,000-tonne submarine
South Korea will launch a new 3,000-tonne indigenous submarine featuring advanced combat and sonar systems on Tuesday, the Navy said.
The ceremony for the mid-class diesel-powered submarine will be held at the Okpo Shipyard of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. in Geoje city later in the day, reports Yonhap News Agency.
It is the second of three 3,000-tonne-class submarines that South Korea plans to build by 2023 with its own technologies under a 3.09 trillion won project launched in 2007.
The first submarine, the Dosan Ahn Chang-ho, was launched in 2018 and is expected to be put into operational deployment around the end of this year.
The 83.3-metre-long and 9.6-metre-wide submarine is capable of carrying 50 crewmembers and can operate underwater for 20 days without surfacing, officials of the Defence Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said, adding that it will be equipped with six vertical launching tubes capable of firing submarine-based ballistic missiles.
It will be delivered to the Navy and deployed in 2022 after necessary tests, they added.
South Korea's military currently operates nine 1,200-ton submarines and nine 1,800-ton ones, according to Yonhap News Agency.
