Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) succeeded in winning the order to build the second of three upgraded Aegis-equipped next-generation warships of the South Korean Navy, while currently working on the construction of the first.

HHI announced on November 8 that it has signed a contract worth KRW 636.3 billion with the nation’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration to construct the second ship of the Gwanggaeto-III Batch II program.

The second destroyer to be built by HHI is identical in shape to the first ship, which was ordered in October 2019.

The newly ordered vessel will be built at HHI’s Ulsan shipyard, scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in 2026.

The two ships will become the nation’s largest destroyers with a length of 170 meters and a weight of 8,100 tons, able to sail at a maximum speed of 30 knots (55 kilometers) per hour.

Compared with the 7,100-ton, The King Sejong the Great class Aegis destroyer built by HHI in 2008, the upgraded Aegis destroyers will be equipped with more powerful capacities including the ability to intercept ballistic missiles and three times upgraded anti-submarine operation capability.

The next-generation Aegis destroyer boasts the most advanced combat power to date, seen as a collection of state-of-the-art technologies.

For this reason, it is expected to provide further enhanced operational responsiveness for the deterrence of war and leadership in the maritime domain as a core force of the South Korean Navy's Maritime Task Flotillas.

The new order is a recognition of HHI’s superior technological prowess as the only South Korean shipbuilder that has successfully designed and constructed Aegis ships.

HHI has a track record of successfully completing the basic designing and actual construction of the nation’s first and third Aegis destroyers, each named “ROKS Sejong the Great” and “ROKS Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong.”

In 2019, it received an order to build the first of three upgraded Aegis-equipped next-generation warships that it is currently working on. HHI will have built four out of the five domestic Aegis ships when the construction of the recently ordered vessel is completed.