KSS-III SSX Jangbogo-III Class
As of 2004 South Korea was planning to build a class of 3,500-ton submarines, with the first entering service around 2012. About 1.7 billion won ($1.4 million) was in the 2004 defense budget for a two-year study of the project. South Korea had deployed nine 1,200-ton submarines since 1992, and planned to launch three 1,800-ton vessels worth 2.27 trillion won from 2007, all with diesel or diesel-electric engines designed by a German firm. As for next-generation subs, the ROK Navy was in the concept design stage.
According to the transcript of the national assembly's meeting of 05 April 2006, South Korea's submarine plan was changed in December 2005 from 9 Type 209s, 3 Type 214s, and 12 "SSX" (indigenous 3,000-ton submarines) to 9 Type 209s, 9 Type 214s, and 9 "KX-3" submarines. The Korean name for the SSX is Jangbogo-III. The Type 214 is called Jangbogo-II [Chang Bogo]. The KX-3 is a rarely used name for the SSX. In May 2007 a committee chaired by the Defence Minister authorized the 2.5 trillion won ($2.62 billion) plan to develop an indigenous 4,000-ton (submerged displacement) submarine. The contract for basic design was signed in December 2007. Daewoo and Hyundai will jointly design the sub from December 2007 to December 2011.
SSX-N Korean Atomic Submarine ??
The 1999 movie Yuryeong [aka Phantom Submarine or Phantom: The Submarine ] centers on the Phantom, Korea's first nuclear submarine. The movie follows the crew of anonymous sailors controlling the top secret Korean nuclear submarine known as the Phantom. The main character became an unwilling crew member when the government officially erased him from existence. Like Crimson Tide or Hunt for Red October, the film follows the first Korean nuclear submarine out into international waters where it encounters and destroys several Japanese subs in some very well rendered sequences. Armed with nuclear weapons and a crew with no record of existence, it embarked on a do-or-die mission into the deep waters of the Pacific. This movie won six "Academy Awards" in South Korea in 1999.
In January 2004 Choson Ilbo journalist Yu Yong-won reported that South Korean military authorities were considering the possibility of developing nuclear powered submarines after 2012. South Korean officials began to discuss the construction of nuclear submarines in May 2003, to be able to deal with "potential security threats from other strong powers in the region following Korean unification." The South Korean Navy was reported to have formed a working group of some 30 specialists to initiate design work on the project.
In August 2004, reporter Kim Yong-sam of the South Korean monthly news magazine Wolgan Choson reported that the Ministry of National Defense had approved concept designs in June 2003. An inter-agency working group for the project was said to include the ROK Navy, the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI).
According to one report, government officials stated that on 25 January 2004 Defense Department and the navy examined the construction of an atomic submarine positively, based on the report from May 2003. The nuclear propelled submarine of 4,000 ton class (SSX), after 2012, was said to be viewed positively in order for the Korean navy to cope with the threat in regard to the security of neighboring countries such as Japan and China.
Initially for the Korean navy, the German make 214 model submarines (KSS-II) was to lead to the domestic 3,500 ton type conventionally powered submarine (KSS-III), which would lead to the the domestic 4,000 ton model atomic submarine (SSX). In this plan there is a gradual evolution, loading domestic cruise missiles on the KSS-III. The alternative was a schedule in which building the KSS-III is excluded, when the approach which directly builds the atomic submarine is connected to the guaranty of the effective naval arm. If the project had been approved in 2007, and started construction 2~3 years would be needed, with at least 3 planned. Under this plan the first would be commissioned in 2012.
Secret South Korean military were inadvertently published on the South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) website when the agency was established on 01 January 2006. DAPA uploaded classified excerpts from Ministry of National Defense weapons development plans, for which over one hundred were classified as "top secret" (level 3) or "no foreign access." The document excerpts on the DAPA website included references to South Korean plans to build three "medium-size next generation" submarines between 2010 and 2022, under the "SSX project." The size of the budget allocation for the submarines (3.074 trillion won - about $3.24 billion) suggested that Seoul was indeed planning to develop nuclear-powered vessels.
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense and DAPA denied any plans to develop nuclear-propelled submarines. On January 9, 2006, DAPA Director Kim Chong-il insisted that there are no plans to develop a nuclear-powered submarine and that it was "absurd nonsense" to suggest that the SSX project submarines would be nuclear-powered.
As for SSX nuclear propelled submarine of 4,000 ton class, the atomic energy-related systems for the submarine might receive technical aid from Russia. The Korean Atomic Energy Laboratory SMART-P technical verification reactor is a next generation reactor where principal device such as steam generator and pressurizer has settled in one (design life approximately 30 years). It was developed from 2002, and completed in June 2008. As for this experimental reactor, that is one possible prototype, the height is 10m and diameter 5m.
One obstacle is that the atomic submarine would have a nuclear power plant that used Low Enriched Uranium, in order not to violate to the Korean Peninsula denuclearization declaration. The problem is that such fuel would have a relatively short core life, requiring frequent refueling. Normally, nuclear powered submarines use uranium enriched to ove 80%, to nearly bomb grade of over 90%.
