SEOUL– Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. said Tuesday that it has signed a 636.3 billion won (US$ 539.7 million) deal to build an Aegis destroyer of the South Korean Navy.
Under the deal with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, Hyundai Heavy Industries will deliver the warship, which is the second of three upgraded Aegis destroyers named Gwanggaeto-III Batch II, to the Navy by 2026.
Hyundai Heavy Industries is set to deliver the first of the three upgraded destroyers to the Navy by 2024.
The first and second destroyers to be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries are identical in shape, but it remains unclear whether the third one will be the same.
The 8,100-ton next-generation Aegis destroyers will be 170 meters in length, 21 meters in width and be able to sail at a maximum speed of 30 knots per hour, Hyundai Heavy Industries said.
Compared with The King Sejong the Great, a 7,100-ton Aegis destroyer built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2008, the upgraded Aegis destroyers have more powerful capacity to intercept ballistic missiles and anti-submarine operation capacity, which was expanded three times, the shipbuilder said.
Hyundai Heavy Industries also constructed another Aegis destroyer of the Navy, which was named the Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong in 2011.
Source: Yonhap News Agency