Recently, the South Korean Ministry of Defense released South Korea's 2021-2025 national defense blueprint, in which South Korea officially proposed to build aircraft carriers with a displacement of 40,000 tons and missile submarines with a displacement of nearly 4,000 tons, and even proposed a new KDX-3 and KDDX destroyer program, if the blueprint is realized, then the strength of the South Korean Navy will be multiplied.
The South Korean Navy's new aircraft carrier code name is LPX-II, according to the report of South Korea's **, the aircraft carrier has had two rough plans to discuss, one is a large aircraft carrier program with a displacement of more than 70,000 tons, and it also has a two-ship island layout, and the other is a 40,000-ton aircraft carrier program with an inclined deck, although it is a single ship island, but the ship island occupies a high proportion of the entire length of the aircraft carrier, and the upper part of the island is equipped with a new active phased array radar integrated radio frequency developed by South Korean Hanwha.
But in fact, because the specific requirements put forward by the South Korean Navy clearly stated that the new aircraft carrier was an aircraft-carrying ship of the amphibious assault ship type, and even pointed out that a displacement of 30,000 tons would be sufficient, the concept of the LPX-II aircraft carrier announced by South Korea was a ship that was extremely close to the "United States" in appearance The light aircraft carrier of the class amphibious assault ship, its appearance is very close to the amphibious assault ship, and the original demonstration of the 40,000-ton aircraft carrier's floating structure and beveled deck design has been canceled, and it is basically an amphibious assault ship without dock compartments, and the starting point of the design is similar to that of the US Navy's development of the "American" class amphibious assault ship in those years, all of which provide as much aviation support as possible in amphibious operations.
For the South Korean Navy, the first target for the development of the new aircraft carrier is, of course, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, although both countries are allies of the United States, but militarily they are-for-tat, so much so that the South Korean Navy named its first amphibious assault ship after the disputed "Dokdo" (called Takeshima in Japan) disputed by South Korea and Japan. The development of the South Korean Navy's aircraft type ** and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force is basically synchronized, at the beginning, South Korea was still a little ahead, in 2007 in the East Asian navies took the lead in building the aircraft-carrying ** "Dokdo" amphibious assault ship, with a displacement of 180,000 tons, at that time, it was also the envy of Japan and China.
As a result, Japan soon commissioned its own *** aircraft carrier 16ddh "Hyuga" class in 2009, and this *** aircraft carrier also has a displacement of 180,000 tons, the intention of the two countries to compete is very obvious, and 16ddh as soon as it went up, the dock was canceled, the floating structure was added, the all-through flight deck was used, the high-speed ship design was used, and the ability to use aviation equipment was highlighted, becoming the first country in East Asia to be equipped with a similar aircraft carrier, known as the "quasi-aircraft carrier", and since then a total of 4 quasi-aircraft carriers have been built, including 2 "Izumo" class *** aircraft carriers, with a displacement of 270,000 tons, has reached the level of a light aircraft carrier, and now the Sea of Japan has begun to transform the "Izumo" class, planning to make it able to carry F-35B vertical take-off and landing fighters, becoming a real aircraft carrier, Japan calls it a "defensive aircraft carrier".
Of course, our country was not idle during this period, and built 2 large aircraft carriers with a displacement of 60,000 tons, which were commissioned in 2012 and 2019, respectively, they are the Type 001 "Liaoning" ship and the Type 002 "Shandong" Ships, different from Japan and South Korea are still holding the pipa half-covered aircraft carrier construction, China has built a large aircraft carrier with a large displacement as soon as it got started, and has perfect aviation operation facilities, can directly carry J-15 heavy carrier-based aircraft, becoming the first country in East Asia to have a real aircraft carrier after World War II, and also becoming the country with the most aircraft carriers and the strongest naval combat effectiveness in Asia today.
In this context, the South Korean Navy, which had taken the lead in the construction of aircraft-carrying ships, suddenly found that the three East Asian countries were left without aircraft carriers, so South Korea began to demonstrate a new aircraft carrier plan in addition to the No. 2 ship "Maro Island", which built the "Dokdo" class amphibious assault ship, which gave birth to the LPX-II aircraft carrier. Like the Sea of Japan, South Korea's aircraft carrier dream is also pinned on the United States to export the F-35B vertical take-off and landing fighter, this fighter lowers the threshold for aircraft carrier construction, a ** with a large flight deck, you can directly carry this aircraft, so as to become an aircraft carrier, the US Navy's amphibious assault ships can carry it, which is one of the advantages of the F-35B.
Judging by the hull, the South Korean Navy, which has built amphibious assault ships, also does not lack the technology to build **, that is, aircraft carriers, with all-access flight decks, hangars, vertical lifts, broadside ship islands. In contrast, South Korea has chosen a medium-sized aircraft carrier plan more pragmatically this time, which can effectively shorten the construction period and technical difficulties, so that the aircraft carrier can be put into service as soon as possible and be able to compete with the Sea of Japan as soon as possible. The South Korean Navy's new aircraft carrier is scheduled to be completed and put into service around 2030, and there are still 10 years to go, and it is very likely that construction will start in five years.
The difficulty of the LPX-II aircraft carrier is not too difficult for South Korea, but the 4,000-ton missile submarine that South Korea intends to build this time is not so easy. According to South Korea's vision, this missile submarine needs to have the ability to carry and launch ballistic missiles, obviously, the purpose of the construction of this submarine is not so simple, he first aimed at countering North Korean missile submarines, after all, the North Korean Navy has a number of "Sinpo" class conventionally powered missile submarines, which can launch ballistic missiles underwater, each carrying 2 missiles, in actual combat, will pose a serious threat to the South Korean Navy, because this is called "North Star" The range of submarine-launched missiles is likely to exceed 1,000 kilometers, which is enough to hit targets throughout South Korea, and if South Korea does not have the corresponding equipment, or improves its anti-submarine warfare capabilities, then South Korea will be very passive in wartime.
In addition, South Korea's missile submarine also needs to play a deterrent role outside, after all, the Sea of Japan has no similar equipment, which is a typical offensive **, the Sea of Japan has not dared to take this step, of course, with the construction of aircraft carriers in Japan come true, maybe it will be tried in the future, but at this stage, Japan does not have it, there is nothing to say. As far as another big country in East Asia is concerned, South Korea's construction of missile submarines will also pose a certain threat, after all, South Korea is an ally of the United States, and if South Korea has missile submarines and anti-missile interception systems in this place, then the threat is still not small. Therefore, South Korea's construction of missile submarines may have a subtle impact on the pattern of regional relations.
From the point of view of technical realization, South Korea has little problem building submarines, after all, after South Korea introduced a full set of technology from the German AIP attack submarine, it has developed its own 3 types of conventionally powered AIP submarines, of which the largest KSS-3 type has reached 3000 tons, and the performance is still very good. The South Korean Navy's submarine technology is still above North Korea's, and if South Korea builds missile submarines, it will already be much ahead of North Korea in missile carriers alone.
But the difficulty in the development of missile submarines lies not in the submarines themselves, but in submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Submarine underwater launch of ballistic missiles is technically difficult and requires long-term testing, generally speaking, a full-fledged, serviceable submarine-launched missile requires a minimum of 10 years of testing time. Even Russia, which has excellent ballistic missile technology, spent 10 years on the test of the "Bulava" missile, and the DPRK's ballistic missile technology and rocket technology are more advanced than those of South Korea, but it also took several decades to develop underwater launch missile technology.
After passing the submarine-launched missile level, it is still necessary to conduct systematic joint training with submarines in order to form combat effectiveness. In order to launch missiles underwater, missile submarines need to adjust their attitude, and the surrounding environment is very demanding during launching, including the depth of diving, the pitching and sway of the submarine, and the influence of ocean currents, all of which need to be scientifically analyzed to ensure the safety of launching. South Korea has no experience in this area in the past, and it is estimated that the test time will not be short, and it is conservatively estimated that the missile submarine will be put into service around 2040, which is good.
Compared with the whimsical nature of the new aircraft carrier plan and the unreachability of the new missile submarine, the new destroyer plan planned by South Korea is estimated to be much smoother, after all, it is only the purchase of one additional KDX-3 "King Sejong" class destroyer to cope with the increasing sequence of Aegis ships of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Sea of Japan will put into service all two "Maya" class destroyers this year, and the size of the Japanese shield ships will reach six, twice that of the South Korean Navy.
The new KDX-3 destroyer will use the technology of the American Burke-2A reboot type, use the Aegis Baseline-9 system, increase the SPQ-9B active phased array radar system currently owned by the Burke-2A destroyer, and improve the fire control capability and the detection and strike capability of low-altitude sea-skimming targets, which is the same as the starting point of the self-built "Maya" class destroyers in the Sea of Japan, all for the purpose of directly introducing the American Aegis Baseline-9 system and using the new radar to improve combat effectiveness.