History of The Republic of Korea Navy - 1990s

1990s

Since the 90s, the ROK Navy has been steadily upgrading its naval forces. In 1995, Admiral An Pyongtae, the 20th Chief of Naval Operations, presented the vision of building a "blue ocean navy" for the future of the ROK Navy in his inaugural address.

As a part of a plan to strengthen the surface combatant forces, ROKS Kwanggaeto the Great (DDH 971), the ROK Navy's first locally built destroyer, was launched in 1996; the Kwanggaeto the Great class destroyers replaced the aged former USN Allen M. Sumner class and Gearing class destroyer. For building submarines forces, the ROK Navy acquired its first submarine (excluding midget submarines) ROKS Chang Bogo (SS 061) from Germany in 1992. The following eight Chang Bo-go class submarines were built in Korea. In order to replace the aged S-2 Trackers, Lockheed P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft were delivered to the ROK Navy from 1995.

In November 1999, the ROK Navy completed the construction of Pyeongtaek Naval Operations Base; Commander Second Fleet was relocated from Incheon Naval Base to the newly established base with an operational headquarters.

In October 1998, the ROK Navy hosted its first International Fleet Review in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Republic of Korea and its armed forces off coast of Busan and Jinhae. About 60 ships from 12 countries participated in the fleet review including the South Korean navy.

In June 1999, the ROK Navy forces engaged the North Korea naval forces near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the vicinity of Yeonpyeong Islands. In June 2002, the two Navies engaged again in the same vicinity resulting in the sinking of ROKS PKM 357.