HANJIN Heavy Industries & Construction pens second landing craft unit
HHIC was named as the builder of the second Dokdo-class amphibious assault ship. In a tender for the construction of the second Dokdo-class ship held by Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the company was named as the primary bidder. After going though the screening process, it signed a contract for the construction of the amphibious assault ship at KRW 417.5 billion with DAPA on December 23, 2014, the company said in its press release.
The Landing Platform Experimental (LPX) is an amphibious assault ship whose basic duty is to transport troops and their equipment. It can be used in commanding maritime operations such as Anti-surface Warfare (ASuW), Anti-air Warfare (AAW) and Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW). It is also available in government-led support activities such as disaster relief, maintenance of world peace and emergence evacuation of overseas Koreans.
After building and handing over Dokdo ship seven years ago, HHIC is honored to construct the second Dokdo ship again.
The secondary LPX amphibious ship construction project has been promoted to upgrade current Dokdo ship and improve the ROK Navy’s operational capabilities through the adoption of the latest technology and advanced equipment. It appears that it would upgrade the ROK Navy’s landing operation capabilities by having helicopters and High-Speed Landing Crafts (LCPFs) and significantly improving the landing operation capabilities.
An official from the ROK Navy anticipated that once they own two command ships which can carry out multipurpose operations in the offshore and in the open sea along with Dokdo ship, they would be able to operate warships more efficiently.
HHIC initiated the construction of Dokdo in 2002 and launched the ship in 2005. After successfully passing operation and performance tests, it was handed over the ROK Navy in 2007.
The Dokdo-class Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH) is considered that it has improved amphibious capability of the ROK Navy. With full load displacement of 18,800 tons, ‘Dokdo’ has 199m of length, 31m of breadth with 6.6m of draft and 23 knots of maximum speed. It is also equipped with helicopter, fast landing ship, tank and so on, with ability to put around 700 landing forces to the area of operations. The second large landing craft utility is to be built based on the guide ship. Its performance will be enhanced through the improvement of design and installation of state-of-the-art equipment.
An official from HHIC said, “Again, we were honored to be named as the builder of the second Dokdo-class amphibious assault ship.” He added, “With a perfect construction of the ship based on 100% our design, we are going to make a contribution to the improvement of national defense and maritime security.”