The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) (Administrator Seok Jong-geon) held a kickoff meeting for the purchase of Submarine Tugboat-Ⅱ at Dong-il Shipbuilding (Busan) on the 15th (Wednesday).
Submarine Tugboat-Ⅱ is a vessel that will be delivered to the Navy from the end of 2026 and will be utilized in various fields such as safe entry and exit support for Jangbogo-Ⅲ, firefighting support, and marine pollution control. Previously, two tugs were required to support the entry and exit of Jangbogo-Ⅲ, but Submarine Tugboat-Ⅱ can perform missions with just one since it is capable of side towing*, allowing for safer and faster submarine entry and exit support.
* Stable and efficient towing is possible by pulling or pushing from the side of the target vessel.
This meeting, hosted by the Director of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration’s Korean Submarine Business Division (Senior Civil Servant Lee Sang-woo) and attended by the Navy, the Agency for Defense Development, and other business stakeholders, was the first meeting held to deliver the ‘Submarine Towed-II’ to the Navy in a timely manner. The overall business plan, including the ship design direction and equipment acquisition plan, was shared, and each field’s tasks and cooperation matters, such as work process management, shape and quality management, and parts discontinuation management, were discussed in depth
. After the ’24 December purchase test evaluation result’ was judged as ‘combat fit’, the 117th Defense Acquisition Program Planning and Management Subcommittee deliberated and approved the model decision (draft) and signed a purchase contract with Dong-il Shipbuilding*. In particular, this project is the first project to apply the purchase procedure to a ship, unlike the existing ship acquisition method of building a lead ship and a follow-up ship through a detailed design. The project is being promoted by comprehensively considering the economic aspects of cost reduction while rapidly building a ship and achieving the required performance by utilizing mature commercial technology in the private sector.
* Contract period/amount: 2024 ~ 2027 / approximately KRW 29 billion
At this kick-off meeting, the head of the Korea Submarine Project at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (Senior Civil Servant Lee Sang-woo) said, “The Submarine Tug-II project is a meaningful project that is being promoted through a purchase method for the first time for a vessel. If the project is successfully carried out, it will become a leading business model that can be expanded to other combat service support vessels* in the future.”
* Includes tugs, harbor patrol boats, water patrol boats, and mooring support boats as combat vessels and support vessels owned by the Navy.