ROKS Choe Yeong | |
History | |
---|---|
South Korea | |
Name |
|
Namesake | Choe Yeong |
Builder | Hyundai |
Launched | 20 October 2006 |
Commissioned | 4 September 2008 |
Identification | Pennant number: DDH-981 |
Motto | Do Your Best, Be The First |
Status | Active |
Badge | |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin-class destroyer |
Displacement |
|
Length | 150 m (492 ft 2 in) |
Beam | 17.4 m (57 ft 1 in) |
Draft | 9.5 m (31 ft 2 in) |
Propulsion | Combined diesel or gas |
Speed | 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) |
Range | 10,200 km (5,500 nmi) |
Complement | 200 |
Armament |
|
ROKS Choe Yeong is a Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin-class destroyer in the South Korean navy. The ship is named after Choe Yeong.
In January 2011 she saw action when she pursued a chemical tanker captured by Somali pirates. The tanker was retaken with eight pirates killed and five captured. Later in 2011 she evacuated South Korean nationals stranded in Libya.
The KDX-II is part of a much larger build up program aimed at turning the ROKN into a blue-water navy. It is said to be the first stealthy major combatant in the ROKN and was designed to significantly increase the ROKN's capabilities. [1]
ROKS Choe Yeong is a Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin-class destroyer and entered service in 2006.
Choe Yeong was assigned to patrol the Northern Limit Line in November 2009 after a boundary dispute clash with North Korea, the first of its kind in seven years.[ citation needed ] In August 2010, the ship participated in a series of naval drills in the Yellow Sea, four months after the sinking of ROKS Cheonan. [2]
On 15 January 2011, the Norwegian-owned chemical tanker Samho Jewelry was captured by Somali pirates while en route from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka. [3] The South Korean operator of the vessel, the Samho Shipping Company, was facing huge losses because it was obligated to continue paying Norwegian investors under its charter even while the vessel was held by pirates. However, the Norwegian government had no military presence in the area at the time. [4] Eight South Koreans were among the 21 crewmembers being held hostage. [5]
The South Korean government dispatched Choe Yeong, under Captain Cho Young-joo, commander of the Cheonghae Anti-piracy Unit. [6] Choe Yeong pursued Samho Jewelry for nearly a week until the pirates aboard the tanker were fatigued. [7] Several fake attacks were staged to exhaust the pirate crew. [8] When some of the pirates left the ship to attempt another hijacking on a nearby Mongolian vessel, commandos from the Republic of Korea Naval Special Warfare Brigade boarded Samho Jewelry while a Westland Lynx helicopter provided covering fire. [7] Communications jamming was utilized to prevent the pirates from calling for assistance. [8] The tanker was retaken with eight pirates killed and five captured. The captain of Samho Jewelry survived a gunshot wound to the stomach while three navy personnel suffered "light scratches". [7] The rest of the tanker crew were unharmed. [9]
Choe Yeong escorted Samho Jewelry to Oman, where they docked at the port of Muscat on 31 January. [6] The rescue was called "a perfect military operation" by Lieutenant General Lee Sung-ho of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Republic of Korea. [7]
ROKS Choe Yeong was diverted from anti-piracy operations in the waters off of Somalia to evacuate South Korean nationals stranded in Libya. Choe Yeong successfully evacuated 32 South Korean nationals on 4 March and docked in the Maltese port of Valletta. Choe Yeong remained on standby near Libyan waters to support "further evacuation efforts." [10]
ROKS Choe Yeong returned from a tour of duty with the Cheonghae Anti-piracy Unit on 24 May 2019. The ship was participating in a welcoming ceremony in the Jinhae Naval Base in Jinhae. [11] While tightening a mooring line around 10:15 am KST, the rope snapped for currently unknown reasons. A petty officer second class died while receiving treatment, while four other sailors received non-life-threatening injuries. [12]
The ROKS Choe Yeong was deployed to the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian maritime forces belonging to the IRGC seized a South Korean-flagged vessel. [13]
The Republic of Korea Navy, also known as the ROK Navy or South Korean Navy, is the naval warfare service branch of the South Korean armed forces, responsible for naval and amphibious operations. The ROK Navy includes the Republic of Korea Marine Corps, which functions as a branch of the Navy. The ROK Navy has about 70,000 regular personnel including 29,000 Republic of Korea Marines. There are about 140 commissioned ships in the ROK Navy. The naval aviation force consists of about 70 fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. The ROK Marine Corps has about 300 tracked vehicles including assault amphibious vehicles.
Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin class destroyers are multipurpose destroyers of the Republic of Korea Navy. The lead ship of this class, ROKS Chungmugong Yi Sunsin, was launched in May 2002 and commissioned in December 2003. Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin-class destroyers were the second class of ships to be produced in the Republic of Korea Navy's destroyer mass-production program named Korean Destroyer eXperimental, which paved the way for the navy to become a blue-water navy. Six ships were launched by Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in four years.
The action of 28 October 2007 was part of Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa, the military operation defined by the United States for combating terrorism in the Horn of Africa. The incident occurred when United States Navy units acted to interdict piracy in the region.
The Republic of Korea Navy was founded on November 11, 1945 as Marine Defense Group after Korea was liberated from the Empire of Japan. The ROK Navy is the oldest service within the ROK Armed Forces. In 2015, the South Korean navy celebrated its 70th anniversary.
Piracy off the coast of Somalia occurs in the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel, and Somali Sea, in Somali territorial waters and other surrounding places and has a long troubled history with different perspectives from different communities. It was initially a threat to international fishing vessels during the early 2000s, only to rapidly escalate and expand to international shipping during the War in Somalia (2006–2009).
The Republic of Korea Navy Special Warfare Flotilla is a special operations force of the Republic of Korea Navy. The WARFLOT is most commonly referred to as the Underwater Demolition Team or UDT, and sometimes as UDT/SEALs, coming from the fact UDTs are the most prominent branch of the flotilla and their close ties with US Navy SEALs respectively.
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Samho Dream is a South Korean, Marshall-Island flagged supertanker that was carrying oil from Iraq to the United States when it was hijacked by Somali pirates on April 4, 2010. At the time, the vessel was crewed by 24 sailors: five South Koreans and nineteen Filipinos. The owner of the craft, Korea-based SH Tankers Limited said a pirate source named Mohamed had said the ship was heading for Haradheere, the pirates' base at which many ships are held during ransom negotiations. On November 6, 2010, after being held for 217 days, the ship was released from under pirate control for a ransom of about $9 million.
MV Samho Jewelry is a Norwegian-owned and South Korean-operated chemical tanker. She was hijacked by Somali pirates on January 15, 2011 and rescued six days later by South Korean Navy commandos.
Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden was a naval operation by the Republic of Korea Navy against Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea. The operation was spurred by the pirates' seizure of the South Korean chemical tanker Samho Jewelry. In response, the South Korean government sent a destroyer and 30 naval commandos to retake the ship and rescue its crew. After trailing the tanker for several days and fighting a preliminary engagement that neutralized four of the pirates, the South Korean forces retook the ship by force on January 21, 2011, in a successful boarding action that resulted in the deaths of eight and the capture of five out of thirteen pirates.
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