<< The South Korean Navy holds a commissioning ceremony for the 7,600-ton Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong, its third Aegis-class destroyer, on September 3 at Busan Naval Operations Base. The new destroyer is scheduled to be put into service in the first half of next year after a 9-month trial period. In the upper right corner of the picture is the Navy’s first Aegis-class destroyer that has been in commission since 2008. Provided by the Unit
By Yoon Byeong-noh
On September 3, the ROK Navy held a commissioning ceremony for its third 7,600-ton Aegis-class destroyer, the Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong. The ceremony held at Busan Naval Operations Base was hosted by Vice Admiral Koo Ok-hyoe, Commander-in-Chief ROK Fleet. A warship commissioning ceremony is the official act of placing the ship in active service, after it was built at a shipyard and then delivered to the Navy.
The ceremony was attended by more than 1,500 personnel from military and government agencies and business corporations including former Defense Minister Cho Yeong-gil, former naval chiefs of operations, the top leader of the Pungsan Ryu clan gathering and the new destroyer crew and sailors. Also, another Aegis-class destroyer, the Sejong the Great, the amphibious landing ship, ROKS Dokdo, and the Navy's Type 209 submarine, Jeong Ji, joined the ceremony to celebrate the new destroyer’s entering service.
“I’d like you to take pride in having been crew of the best and most powerful destroyer in the world,” said Admiral Koo in a speech, urging them to develop their warfighting capabilities enabling them to successfully fulfill the tasks assigned to them by the government and Navy, by always keeping in mind that you are engaged in battle and armed with a combatant cast on mind.
Launched at a shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries on March 24 last year, the Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong was officially handed over to the Navy launched after 17 months of test operations. During the trial period, all of its crew got ready to build their combat readiness by developing the ‘equipment management evaluation procedures’ in order to boost the Aegis Combat System capabilities. Also, the crew visited Hahoe Folk Village about 25 km east of Andong, North Gyeongsang Province to take over Ryu Seong-ryong’s ideals of saving the nation. Ryu Seong-ryong was a prominent scholar official who helped defend the nation from the Japanese aggression of Korea in the late 16th century during the Choseon Dynasty.
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| Sejong the Great class Destroyer (Wiki Info) |
The Ryu Seong-ryong is equipped with mostly domestically-built weapons system. Those weapons include the SM-II surface-to-air fleet defense guided missiles, which is installed in the launcher, the RAM short-range anti-aircraft guided missiles, close-in weapon system (CIWS), which is a naval shipboard point-defense weapon for detecting and destroying at short range incoming anti-ship missiles and enemy aircraft which have penetrated the outer defenses, Haesung (Sea Star) long-range ship-to-ship cruise missile, Hongsangeo (Red Shark) long-range anti-submarine torpedoes and Chungsangeo (Blue Shark) light torpedoes. In this regard, the Aegis destroyer is capable of the full range of military operations.
The 166-meter-long, 21-meter-wide Ryu Seong-ryong can sail at a maximum speed of 30 knots (55.5 kilometers) per hour. Its adoption of a state-of-the-art technique, called stealth technology, contributes to the increase of its survivability. With 300 crew members, the destroyer can also carry two anti-submarine helicopters and a 5-inch antiaircraft artillery.
The Navy expects the new destroyer to play a leading role in contributing to protecting Korea’s national interest and assuring national prosperity as well as in strengthening its maritime operations capabilities in a rapidly changing maritime security environment.
The Ryu Seong-ryong will be deployed for combat operations in the first half of next year following nine-months of final operational tests, including Aegis combat system ship qualification trials with allied nations.