The ROK Navy is growing rapidly, with a series of new generation warships entering service
Along with that, a large number of old warships will be decommissioned
After the Pohang-class corvettes, the Ulsan-class frigates are the next warships to be retired
This opens up a great opportunity for Korean foreign partners to own these old but still very powerful frigates
especially South East Asian partners such as the Philippines or Vietnam
Ulsan is a class of multi-purpose missile frigates built for the ROK Navy between 1980 and 1992 with a total of 9, and one in service with the Bangladesh Navy
Currently, there are four ships in active service with the Republic of Korea Navy
while the remaining ships were decommissioned from 2014 to 2019 respectively
The Ulsan class has three variants: Flight I, with only one ship, followed by Flight II with four ships, and finally Flight III with the final four
These are multi purpose frigates with varied capabilities for ASW, ASUW, and AAW
These are the first frigates designed and built by South Korea, by four different ship builders
The lead ship of the class, Ulsan FF-951, Flight I package, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries
was launched in April 1980 and commissioned in January 1981
It has a full load displacement of 2,180 tons
Subsequent frigates in the Flight II and Flight III packages have a slightly larger full-load displacement of 2,215 tons
They basically don't have much difference in size, with a length of 103.7 m, a beam of 12.5 m, and a draft of 3.8 m
The difference between the early version and the late version is in armament and electronics
The first five ships have 2 OTO Melara 76mm compact guns, 4 Emerson 30mm AA guns, 8 Harpoon SSMs, 6 324mm torpedos
WM-28 fire control radar, DA-05 air search radar
The next 4 ships are generally similar to the Early versions, except they have 3 Breda 40mm AA guns, ST-1802 fire control radar
The different AA gun and the round shaped structure of the mast distingish between the Early and Late versions
With advanced technology, the system automatically controls weapons
such as medium-range surface to surface Harpoon guided - missile able to attack up to 64 miles
RBOC to defend against guided missiles, torpedoes and depth charge bombs which are anti - sub weapons
two 76 mm main guns and three 40 mm secondary guns
The system is capable of simultaneous attack on five anti-aircraft, anti-ship, and anti-sub targets
The design is very powerful compared with other frigates with a similar displacement
The ships have long range and great maneuverability, as they are equiped with two GE LM-2500 gas turbines and 2 MTU diesel engines
which provide a maximum speed 34 knots
Korea has decommissioned the first five ships of the class, two of which have been used as museum ships at Ulsan and Seoul
Retired ships will most likely be aided by close Korean partners, and most likely the Philippines and Vietnam
Ulsan-class warships with powerful firepower, reliable operation
will be a necessary addition for Korean partners while the regional situation is evolving more and more complicated