The South Korean navy took the first steps toward fielding one of the U.S. Navy’s premiere fleet defense systems on board their warships, taking delivery of the first Phalanx Close-In Weapon System last week.
The Raytheon [RTN]-built Phalanx will allow South Korean ships to take out a myriad of short-range threats, ranging from small vessels to anti-ship missiles in the terminal phase, via a 20mm gun automated to fix, track and destroy such targets, according to a company statement.
The first Phalanx gun system, a Block 1B variant, will be installed onto the lead ship of the South Korean navy’s new frigate-class, known as the Ulsan-1 class FFX, the statement noted. The new FFX-ship class will replace the current Ulsan and other smaller frigates, and will be used primarily for anti-ship, anti-submarine and anti-aircraft warfare.
This initial delivery is the first of six total that Raytheon plans to sell to the South Korean navy. The Block 1B version of the system is the same one on board U.S. Navy ships.
Raytheon has yet to lock in the foreign military sale for the additional five Phalanx systems, which are planned to go on board the new FFX frigates, the company statement said.
South Korea will join 25 other nations, including the United States, which currently field the Phalanx system., the statement added. Nearly 890 Phalanx systems have been deployed worldwide.
“The Phalanx system is fully capable of defending against all types of air and surface threats in the naval environment,” Rick Nelson, vice president of Raytheon’s Naval Weapons Systems, said in the statement.
“Coupled with the reliability and availability of this world-class system, the South Korean fleet will have the best possible ship self-defense available,” he added.
Currently, the Phalanx is the only close-in weapon system in the Navy’s arsenal capable of autonomously performing its own search, detect, evaluation, track, engage and kill assessment functions, according to a service fact sheet.
Additionally, the system can be tied into existing ship combat control systems “to provide additional sensor and fire-control support to other installed ship weapon systems,” the fact sheet said.