King Sejong the Great class destroyer

Originally Posted by samba

Hi i thought i would start a thread about this quite new destroyer, I think it is the most heavily armed ship in its class

It uses the Aegis system, and arnaments seem to differ depending on website source but seem to be:

1 127mm L62 Mk-45 Mod 4 naval gun
80 VLS cells for aaw missiles and other compatible missiles
16 SSM-700K Hae Sung long-range anti-ship missiles
32 Hyunmoo III land attack missiles
1 30mm Goalkeeper (CIWS) and a RIM-116 RAM
possibly an additional 16 anti submarine missiles aft

The Koreans have really packed a lot of weapons onto this ship, maybe at the expense of sea keeping?

There arent too many pics out there, but here is a good one

I have an entire page dedicated to this vessel here:

South Korean Sejong Class DDG

Lots of nice pics there, like this one:



These are the most heavily armed Aegis vessels afloat.

Its nice but they had to import the Standard missiles, AESA, Aegis systems, RAM, and a lot of other things.

Its American systems on a South Korean ship

Originally Posted by tanlixiang28776

Its nice but they had to import the Standard missiles, AESA, Aegis systems, RAM, and a lot of other things.

Its American systems on a South Korean ship

Actually the AN/SPY-1 radar is PESA. Even though most of the systems are imported or non-indigenous, it remains possibly the most powerful individual class of principal surface combatant in east asia and the whole of asia... until China or Japan or India fields a larger class.

Originally Posted by Bltizo

Actually the AN/SPY-1 radar is PESA. Even though most of the systems are imported or non-indigenous, it remains possibly the most powerful individual class of principal surface combatant in east asia and the whole of asia... until China or Japan or India fields a larger class.

I think it is definitely the strongest surface combatant/air defense ship out there. A case could certainly be made for the Kirov class Russian cruisers, but this has the capability for more and stronger ( IMHO) surface to surface and surface to air ounch.

I believe and have urged the US Navy to seriously consider a takeoff of this design for the next US cruiser to replace the Ticos. Use two RAMs, use the 155mm AGS, even consider nuclear propulsion (though not a must), make all VLS MKs, etc.

Originally Posted by tanlixiang28776

Its nice but they had to import the Standard missiles, AESA, Aegis systems, RAM, and a lot of other things.

Its American systems on a South Korean ship

Of course it is. It was meant to be. Outside of the one VLS group. It is am enlarged, beefed up, Burke...and shows the US IMHO what they should do for their interim CG design until a full replacement for the Ticos is developed...in fact with a few innovations added, this could be it. See:

Burke CG design

It would look like this(love it):

Yahoo News: March 23, 2011, South Korea Launches third AEGIS destroyer

The South Korean Navy launched the third Sejong Class AEGIS destroyer, the DDG-993, Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong. This vessel fulfills the original commitment to build three KDX-3 vessels, though South Korea still has the option to build three more.

The Sejon Class AEGIS Destroyer is the largest and most powerful AEGIS destroyer in existance, carrying more missiles and firepower than their US NAvy compatriots, the Arleigh Burke Class.

But the US Navy has 62 Arliegh Burke Class destroyers.

Originally Posted by Jeff Head

Of course it is. It was meant to be. Outside of the one VLS group. It is am enlarged, beefed up, Burke...and shows the US IMHO what they should do for their interim CG design until a full replacement for the Ticos is developed...in fact with a few innovations added, this could be it. See:

I heard that the old Gibbs & Cox hull design for Burke might be bumping up against its limit as these scaled up Burkes hitting the 10,000 ton mark? like the structure problems in the old Tic cruiser with its spurance hull?

i think it would be pointless for a small nation like south korea to invest so heavily into its navy. doesnt matter how much it invests into its military, north korea will always be dominating in the peninsula. the americans have bases there as well, so no one dares to touch it.

North Korea dominating? By what standard? Their economy is in the toilet...their GNP is nil...their people border on starving...and IMHO outside of the few nukes, their military is a paper tiger, particularly compared to the South.

The South's Navy is very strong and the South is doing what it is doing as a result of the general naval arms race in the area involving both Japan and China, both of which are very strong and potential adversaries to S. Korea...though China is probably more so than Japan because of the multi-ties Japan and South Korea have to the US...but make no mistake, there are significant S. Korea - Japan differences, particularly territorially on some of the islands where a lot of national pride is vested.

Originally Posted by Jeff Head

North Korea dominating? By what standard? Their economy is in the toilet...their GNP is nil...their people border on starving...and IMHO outside of the few nukes, their military is a paper tiger, particularly compared to the South.

The South's Navy is very strong and the South is doing what it is doing as a result of the general naval arms race in the area involving both Japan and China, both of which are very strong and potential adversaries to S. Korea...though China is probably more so than Jaan because of the multi-ties Japan and South Korea have to the US...but make no mistake, there are significant S. Korea - Japan differences, particularly territorially on some of the islands where a lot of national pride is vested.

Sorry, didn't explain properly enough. Seoul is only 30-40 Km away from the border, where North Korea has prepared more than 5 digits of heavy artilleries to blast the living hell out of Seoul. This city consists more than 70% of national GDP and 45% of the population. Although the North might be a paper tiger, just the artilleries alone will destroy Seoul and this will cause a domino effect on the national economy. So doesn't matter whether if the North loses at the end, South Korea is screwed.

North Korea is similar to China during Mao's era, they don't need a good economy to fight a war. I know this sounds absurd, but the majority of the population in the North are very loyal to the Kim dynasty. The obsolete 2nd generation tanks and cold war era artilleries are more than capable enough to overpower the South.

Anyways, drifting off course.

My point is that South Korea will be screwed either way if they win the war or not. So what's the point of investing so heavily into its military. They should instead work on the economy side.

like the structure problems in the old Tic cruiser with its spurance hull?

My son served on a Tico and a Spru-can and neither had structural problems..In fact the Spruance class DD he served on, USS Paul F Foster DD-964, is still in service as a Self Defense Test Ship for Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme CA.

Foster was decommissioned on March 27, 2003. In 2004, Foster was designated to replace ex-Decatur as the Navy's Self Defense Test Ship, a role she assumed in 2005. In support of this new role, she is assigned to Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division. [1]In 2008, Foster was used in an episode of NCIS (Road Kill) portraying USS Rubicon, a ship about to be decommissioned.[2] As of 2010, Foster is the last surviving example of the Spruance Class.

This is from another forum and not written by me..

Spruance-class Sea Swap Program

When LBNSY(Long Beach Naval Shipyard) was the planning yard for the Spruances, I was assigned as the structural project leader (especially designing the armor plate put on some of them). There were only two hull problems that I recall.

1) The alignment between the Ingalls bult bow and its knife edge were always misaligned with the Canadian built bow mounted SONAR dome. We had to do a lot of weld build ups and days of grinding to make it symetrical.

2) The after part of the hull was vulnerable to overzealous tug boat captains. Almost every ship had a at least a football sized dent back aft in the Carbon Manganese steel (latest equivilant to HTS) plating. If it was between shell stiffeners, we left it alone and called it only cosmetic damage. But if the dent damaged one of the longitudinal frames, then a repair was warranted.

The worst structural problem was there was no expansion joint in the aluminum superstructure and kept getting cracks running up from 02 level to 03 level. We had to design some hefty reinforcement brackets in the corners where the diagonal bulkhead from the forward superstructure met met the narrow section amidships. The Tycos did not have this problem as that corner was designed with a much larger radius to distribute the loadings.

My son served on a Tico and a Spru-can and neither had structural problems..In fact the Spruance class DD he served on, USS Paul F Foster DD-964, is still in service as a Self Defense Test Ship for Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme CA.

Do you think the US navy would build another giant ship similar to Ticonderoga of its day? I mean the Arleigh Burkes are getting bigger and bigger by the day, Ticonderoga as cruisers are no longer so massive compared to the current destroyers. Do you think there will be bigger ships? Similar to the current Russian Varyag and Peter the Great?

Originally Posted by pugachev_diver

Do you think the US navy would build another giant ship similar to Ticonderoga of its day? I mean the Arleigh Burkes are getting bigger and bigger by the day, Ticonderoga as cruisers are no longer so massive compared to the current destroyers. Do you think there will be bigger ships? Similar to the current Russian Varyag and Peter the Great?

The US is going to build three DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class DDGs which will really be cruisers and will be 10,000 tons+.

I believe they should build a Burke derivitive as a bridge cruiser design that would be a take-off and improved South Korean Sejong Class (KDX-III) design.

Ultimately the US plans to build a CGX, which will be the replacement for the Tico cruisers.

Here's a couple of pages:

US Navy DDG 1000 Zumwalt

I just posted a thread about the Zumwalt here on SD.

Proposal for an enlarged Burke class as a CG bridge

Originally Posted by i.e.

I heard that the old Gibbs & Cox hull design for Burke might be bumping up against its limit as these scaled up Burkes hitting the 10,000 ton mark? like the structure problems in the old Tic cruiser with its spurance hull?

The S. Korean KDX-III is out in the field and working, and has exercised with US forces.

The US can and (IMHO) should build a dozen inproved versions of the Sejong, incorporating the AGS and other things (perhaps DBR), etc. And use that as a bridge to the CGX.

Originally Posted by Jeff Head

The S. Korean KDX-III is out in the field and working, and has exercised with US forces.

The US can and (IMHO) should build a dozen inproved versions of the Sejong, incorporating the AGS and other things (perhaps DBR), etc. And use that as a bridge to the CGX.

I know that KDX-III is built and in service.
when Tic Hull structure problem was discovered it was built and working too.
things like these don't always show up/ predicted by the builder/designer's analysis.

I am sure Gibbs & Cox is already aware that there is a upper limit on the basic hull and structure beyond which you will have problems.