HHI to build Koreas first Aegis

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) will begin construction of a warship armed with the Aegis Combat System, the US developed anti-air defense system, for the South Korea?s navy at a cost of over $860million. Code-named KDX-III, the 7,000 tonne destroyer will be the first in a three-ship series which has been under development since 1985.

The navy said that it won Defense Ministry approval for its KDX-III blueprints and construction plans for the first vessel last month after conducting bid notification, cost assessment and a competitive bid. The navy chose HHI which received better marks than Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering(DSME) in regards to price. DSMA, however, claim that they were left out of the running because the company had not received a mark for the assessment of its naval vessel projects for the past 5 years. This was despite the fact that Daewoo presented a bid that was as much as $12 million lower compared with Hyundai and also had past experience in constructing the first KDX-II destroyer for the navy.

HHI will work on detailed plans and start construction of the first vessel next month and deliver it to the navy by the end of 2008. The navy plans to deploy a second and third ship in 2010 and 2012 respectively. Following Japan, Korea would be the second country in East Asia to possess an Aegis warship. Japan, which already has four Aegis destroyers in service, plans to build two additional vessels. The KDX-III is 165.90 metres long, has a maximum speed of 30 knots and is able to accommodate around 300 crew.