South Korea plans to build three “arsenal ships” capable of carrying 80 ballistic missiles by end of 2020s

via Reddit
Republic of Korea Navy has reportedly selected Daewoo Shipbuilding & Engineering (DSME) to design its future arsenal ships on 11 April 2023.

Locally known as “Joint Firepower Vessel (합동화력함),” three arsenal ships are expected to enter service with the ROKN by late 2020s. They’re expected to displace around 5~8,000 tons and armed with up to 80 ballistic missiles, CIWS, torpedos, and other defensive armaments.

ROKN’s future arsenal ships are similar in deign to US Navy concept devised in the 90s, though its operating concept will be and operational environment will be quite different from what USN envisioned. Designed solely for land attack mission,arsenal ships are a practical solution that will address current shortcomings faced by South Korean kill chain and massive retaliation networks.

Despite possessing a large inventory of Hyunmoo-series conventional land-attack ballistic and cruise missiles, South Korea reportedly possesses only around 60+ transporter erector launchers (TEL). These specialized launch vehicles are expensive, maintenance & manpower heavy, require lengthy reload period, and vulnerable to North Korean attacks. With current TEL inventory, it is impossible to launch mass missile salvo that is required in the initial stage of the war against North Korea.

The arsenal ship will address this shortcoming by providing a relatively low-cost, mobile, and survivable launch platform capable of mass salvo fire at a moment’s notice. South Korea is currently undertaking a massive effort to consolidate its strategic strike & missile defense assets under a single umbrella of the ROK Strategic Command slated to become online in 2024. These arsenal ships will likely fall under its operational control.

Although these arsenal ships are extremely vulnerable against modern anti-ship threats posed by adversaries like China, they are being designed exclusively for a North Korean contingency. They will operate far from reaches of North Korean coastal defense cruise missiles and submarines, likely in relative safety of South Korea’s southern coastline or far off the Easter coastline.

The ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff initially identified arsenal ships as part of its long-term procurement plan in 2018. Once DSME completes conceptual design this year, arsenal ships will become part of next year’s mid-term procurement plan and undergo necessary procurement procedures.

I cannot properly describe how much this frustrates me.  Not that the S. Koreans are running full speed ahead with the Arsenal Ship Concept, but that we had these YEARS AGO and did nothing with it.

So many awesome ideas that would be helpful (refuse to call anything a game changer anymore UNLESS it actually is!) in a fight with China.

Imagine if we had one of these ships assigned to every Carrier Battle Group!

Whether the fight is at land or sea we would have tremendous long range striking power regardless of weather!

Instead we're left with these middle powers (S. Korea, Poland, Turkey and others...really like what the French are doing if you ignore their politics) rapidly gaining because they have the ability to step beyond their military complex (which includes generals) to grab hold of evolutionary power that is well within our grip.

Ya know when we ALL saw the start of our decline when it comes to advancements?

When we lost our ability to imagine.

During the 50's and 60's you saw all kinds of advancements being attempted.

Many times the tech was beyond reach but we tried.  Today our defense industry is like our movie industry.  They're building the same shit just putting a new spin on it, calling it fantastic because its slightly different but at the end of the day you see very little forward movement (some of you freaks will point to FD2030..that is an evolutionary step BACKWARDS to an FMF that is totally defensive...more precisely it is an admission of failure).