North Korea Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Valiant 1002 said:

So technically she still has a chance?

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Her equipment and power plant can be reused even if the hull is beyond repair. So most of the value of the ship isn’t lost.

Stupid questions but can someone explain how this ship could be totalled? How does an improper launch affect a ship this bad? How hard is it to just set it back upright and drain out the water or atleast retrieve the technology from it?

Phantom Chuck said:

Tracing the line of the f’c’stle sheer and extending it to the stern seems to show the bow deflected upwards relative to the to stern. Also the hull seems to be twisted, so the stern half is learned over at at least 90 degrees, but the bow half seems to be leaning at a lesser angle. This suggest the keel is broken. Although the two halves of the ship does not appear to be displaced with respect to eachother by as much as suggest by the marker sketch above.

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As previously stated, satellite photos can always have distortions due to misalignment of the satellite and the area on the ground to be photographed, therefore I think it is premature to make such "disastrous" hypotheses. This does not mean that it is not possible that such serious damage occurred, but eventually the damage can only be assessed when the DDG is without the protective sheets.

GiantCanofWater said:

How hard is it to just set it back upright and drain out the water or atleast retrieve the technology from it?

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Best salvage process: (choose one from Step 2 or 5)
0) Use floating boats to hold different sections of the ship, keep it from sinking.
1) Lift the front part of the ship to water with large crane.
2) Rotate the ship from its toppled mode to upright with large crane on a ship. [Optional]
3) Lift the entire ship from water with a semi-submerged ship.
4) Tow the ship to a drydock with tugboat.
5) Rotate the ship from its toppled mode to upright with large crane in drydock. [Optional]
6) Begin repair/recovery work.

I'm not sure whether NK has large cranes fit 1) & 5). We can see there's a crane already stand by near the ship in the latest image. But it's not in the right rail to put the front part into the water yet. Seems they need to move & rotate the crane rail to achieve that.

Meanwhile, I'm sure NK doesn't have that-large semi-submerged ship or large crane ship fits the mission. So they need foreign help in Step 2).

China is good at these things though. China previously managed to salvage SK sunken ferry Sewol. However, military ships of NK is so sensitive, that China doesn't want to intervene, and NK doesn't want so either. Other countries are either not capable of, or unwilling to.

IMO the salvage mission is in no way can be accomplished in one month. Let's wait & see.

Now I just realize...

You can see the opening under the bridge - the location originally thought to be used for the phased array radar (which turned out to be mounted on the top of the superstructure, attached to the mast).

It was still there when the ship was launched and not disappeared, clearly implying that it was still used for something - I believe it was two hatches to cover two other machine gun/autocannon turrets hidden in the superstructure.

GiantCanofWater said:

Stupid questions but can someone explain how this ship could be totalled? How does an improper launch affect a ship this bad? How hard is it to just set it back upright and drain out the water or atleast retrieve the technology from it?

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A ship’s hull is designed to absorb the stresses expected in normal operation, but being supported on both ends while rolled over 90 degrees from vertical is probably not a design criteria, nor is a a severe twisting stress on the hull, especially if the twisting force is the impact type as when part of the ship is still supported by cradle and the other part struck the basin floor.

GiantCanofWater said:

Stupid questions but can someone explain how this ship could be totalled? How does an improper launch affect a ship this bad? How hard is it to just set it back upright and drain out the water or atleast retrieve the technology from it?

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Ship have certainly structural damages if it have been released partially. They need to open it back to repair that type of damage, probably cut the sections damaged and replace them with new bulkheads. It's a huge task.

Could it be repaired ? Probably
Will it take more time repairing that mauled hulk than build a new hull ? Possibly.
Will it be in the same state than a new build ship after repairs ? Probably never.

If it cost more for repairs than salvage subsystem that are no broken and build a new one it's totaled.

More satellite images. The recovery work continues and shows the tarpaulins covering the vessel repositioned and clearer outlines of the UAV/helicopter deck aft, the superstructure with a mast amidships and the bow with its sonar fairing, which will surely need to be protected to avoid damage when they manage to launch the bow of the ship as well.
From these images it does not appear that the hull is misaligned.