South Korean Navy to participate in RIMPAC exercise

South Korea’s bat­tle group con­sist­ing of its Navy and Marine Corps units depart­ed Jin­hae Har­bor on May 4 to par­tic­i­pate in the Rim of the Pacif­ic (RIMPAC) 2012 exer­cise that is sched­uled to begin on June 29 in waters sur­round­ing the Hawai­ian Islands area and will end on Aug. 4.

South Korea’s Aegis-equipped destroy­er Yul­gok Yi I departs Jin­hae Har­bor on May 4 to par­tic­i­pate in the 2012 Rim of the Pacif­ic (RIMPAC) exer­cise. Just pri­or to the exer­cise, the destroy­er is sched­uled to under­go com­bat sys­tems ship qual­i­fi­ca­tion tri­als (CSSQT) as the last stage of the prepa­ra­tions for the exer­cise. Pro­vid­ed by the Navy Source: MND, Repub­lic of Korea

Here you can find more infor­ma­tion about:  The South Kore­an Defense Indus­try – Mar­ket Oppor­tu­ni­ties and Entry Strate­gies, Analy­ses and Fore­casts to 2016

South Korea’s bat­tle group con­sist­ing of its Navy and Marine Corps units depart­ed Jin­hae Har­bor on May 4 to par­tic­i­pate in the Rim of the Pacif­ic (RIMPAC) 2012 exer­cise that is sched­uled to begin on June 29 in waters sur­round­ing the Hawai­ian Islands area and will end on Aug. 4. 

The RIMPAC exer­cise is an inter­na­tion­al mar­itime exer­cise to enhance inter­op­er­abil­i­ty between the Pacif­ic Rim nations as a means of secur­ing safe­ty of the sea lanes and to act joint­ly to fight terrorism. 

The RIMPAC 2012 is the 23rd in the series exer­cise that began in 1971. Con­duct­ed bien­ni­al­ly, it is host­ed and admin­is­tered by the U.S. Third Fleet Com­mand. The South Kore­an Navy has par­tic­i­pat­ed in this exer­cise for the 12th time since its incep­tion in 1990. 

This year’s RIMPAC is the largest-ever exer­cise which is set to include 39 ships, six sub­marines, more than 200 air­craft and 25,000 per­son­nel from 22 Pacif­ic Rim nations. 

The South Kore­an Navy’s three-dimen­sion­al fight­ing pow­er con­sist­ing of ROKS Yul­gok Yi I (DDG-992) destroy­er, a 4400-ton DDH-II destroy­er Choi Young (SS-061), the Chang bogo-class sub­ma­rine, a P‑3C sur­veil­lance plane and a Lynx anti-sub­ma­rine heli­copter, is expect­ed to join the exer­cise. RIMPAC 2012 will fea­ture the first demon­stra­tion of a South Kore­an Marine pla­toon to fos­ter its multi­na­tion­al amphibi­ous land­ing oper­a­tions capabilities. 

Dur­ing the drill, par­tic­i­pants will con­duct not only a basic tac­ti­cal exer­cise through the estab­lished exer­cise sce­nario which com­pris­es var­i­ous exer­cis­es such as anti-ship. anti-air­craft, anti-sub­ma­rine com­bat exer­cis­es, a bal­lis­tic mis­sile launch, and expe­di­tionary oper­a­tions includ­ing amphibi­ous land­ing, but also a free offen­sive and defen­sive exer­cise with­out any planned scenario. 

The South Kore­an Navy which has exe­cut­ed a mis­sion to com­mand a multi­na­tion­al sur­face bat­tle group in this exer­cise since 2006 will per­form, too, the same mis­sion to direct a five-ship sur­face war­fare group con­sist­ing of 4 nations’ navies — South Korea, the Unit­ed States, Cana­da and Columbia. 

The South Kore­an Navy is expect­ed to dis­play its inter­na­tion­al posi­tion and com­bat oper­a­tions capa­bil­i­ties that have been already ele­vat­ed through its suc­cess­ful ‘Gulf of Aden Dawn Oper­a­tion’ and ‘detec­tion of North Korea’s long-range mis­sile launch.’ 

ROKS Nadeay­ong sub­ma­rine will con­duct a gun­nery drill by fir­ing a Har­poon anti-ship mis­sile tar­get­ing a dis­used land­ing ship dur­ing a RIMPAC sink­ing exercise. 

In the mean­time, South Kore­an marine force will first car­ry out field train­ing exer­cis­es at a U.S. marine base in Hawaii such as a ROK‑U.S. joint urban com­bat and a com­bat fir­ing prac­tice and then board a U.S. land­ing ship to exe­cute a non­com­bat­ant evac­u­a­tion and amphibi­ous operations. 

Pri­or to the 2012 RIMPAC exer­cise, South Kore­an Navy’s Aegis-equipped destroy­er Yul­gok Yi I which went into com­mis­sion in 2010 is sched­uled to under­go Com­bat Sys­tem Ship Qual­i­fi­ca­tion Tri­als (CSSQT), the last stage of the prepa­ra­tions for the exercise. 

CSSQT is a series of at-sea tests to eval­u­ate a ship’s com­bat readi­ness. The tests include anchor­ing and cruise exer­cise, equip­ment employ­ing and main­te­nance, and mil­i­tary logis­tics support. 

Source:
Min­istry of Nation­al Defense[MND], Repub­lic of Korea