Defense Business Administration (Commissioner Eom Dong-hwan) held a handover signing ceremony at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (Ulsan) on October 24 (Tuesday) with the participation of shipyard (handover) and navy (acquirer) officials, and handed over the latest new frigate, the Ulsan-class Batch-II No. 8 “Chuncheon”, to the Navy. It has been two years and 11 months since the groundbreaking ceremony in November 2020.
Chuncheon was the final ship of the Ulsan-class Batch-II project, a project to replace the 1,500-ton frigates (FF*) and 1,000-ton corvettes (PCC) in service with the Navy.
2,800-ton combat ship with a length of 122 meters, a width of 14 meters, and a height of 35 meters, it is equipped with a 5-inch gun, a ship-to-ship missile system, a tactical anti-ship missile system, and a close-in defense weapon system, and can operate one maritime operation helicopter.
Also significantly enhanced its anti-submarine capabilities by reducing underwater radiation noise* with a hybrid propulsion system that can use a gas turbine and a propulsion motor at the same time, and improving submarine detection/attack capabilities by equipping it with a pre-arranged sonar (TAS) and a long-range anti-submarine torpedo (Red Shark).
Noise generated by machinery and propellers mounted on the ship and propagated underwater
The Navy currently uses the names of special cities, provinces, provincial districts, and small and medium-sized cities at the municipal level as the names of frigate ships, and in consideration of the principle of establishing ship names, the No. 8 ship was named Chuncheon.
* No. 1 (Daegu), No. 2 (Gyeongnam), No. 3 (Seoul), No. 4 (East Sea), No. 5 (Daejeon), No. 6 (Pohang), No. 7 (Cheonan), No. 8 (Chuncheon)
Chuncheonham is a ship name that has been used before. Acquired from the United States in 1946 and commissioned, the landing craft Chuncheonjeong (LCI-103) was decommissioned in 1953.
Head of the Ship Division of the Defense Project Agency (Bang Cheok-chul, a senior official), said, “Chuncheon is a state-of-the-art combat ship with greatly enhanced anti-submarine operation capabilities, and it is expected to play a great role not only in the future as a capital ship in the sea area * fleet, but also in improving the ability to conduct joint public-private military operations.” He said.
Chuncheon ship will be handed over to the Navy on Oct. 24 and will undergo electrification training before being put into service.