So you hate the Littoral Combat Ship? Looking for that Frigate alternative? How about a frigate based on a modern, mature, evolved design? Look no further than South Korea.

The Navy plans to launch six 5,600-ton "mini-Aegis'' destroyers between 2019 and 2026 in an effort to help facilitate coastal and blue-water operations, the service said Tuesday.

 

The plan was unveiled in a report submitted to a National Assembly inspection of the Navy at the Gyeryongdae military compound in South Chungcheong Province.

 

The medium-sized KDX-IIA destroyers equipped with SPY radar and close-in weapon systems will be a core part of the Navy's strategic mobile fleet led by 7,600-ton KDX-III destroyers, it said.

 

The mobile fleet is to consist of two KDX-III destroyer-led squadrons involving KDX-II or KDX-IIA ships, support vessels, new frigates and attack submarines. A new naval base to be built on the southern island of Jeju by 2014 will serve as homeport for the fleet.

South Korea expects to build three KDX-IIA hulls for the price of one KDX-III hull (KSX-III runs about $860 million per hull), with a KDX-IIA price coming in around $286 million each. As I understand it, all the system costs will pile on top of that. Ultimately, this will be a ship that costs South Korea about the same as we are spending on the LCS.

 

It is a bit worrisome how much more bang for the buck the rest of the world is getting out of new Navy ships while we are stuck on a 70s-80s design Burke with questionable growth options for the future.

 

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I don't hate LCS, we can't hate picturesque and very erroneous projects, as Me-163, FICON or Ford Edsel, they're the salt of the technology story.

But we can't depend on it, neither.

The spanish small AEGIS alternative, Fridtjof Nansen (and his sisters with other evocative names), smaller derived from the proved F-100 design and in service from 2006 in the Norwegian Navy without known problems (rough seas in the norwegian seas, and a traditional seafaring nation, remember):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fridtjof_Nansen_class_frigate

KDX-II, KDX-IIa with AEGIS, not yet in service:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungmugong_Y...class_destroyer