The Cheon Wang Bong-class tank landing ship () is an amphibious landing ship class of the Republic of Korea Navy.
Development
In the late 1980s the Republic of Korea Navy decided to gradually replace its aging fleet of World War II-era s (renamed Un Bong-class LST) purchased from the US Navy in 1958. A three phase plan was laid out to develop new landing ships to meet the demands of modern amphibious and transport operations.
The first phase was designated as the LST-I project, and development and design started in 1987 by Korea Tacoma, currently Hanjin Heavy Industries. After 4 years of development, the lead ship Go Jun Bong (LST-681) was launched in 1991. Three more ships followed and all four ships were commissioned by 1998.
The second phase, or LST-II, was originally planned to import four s, but after being postponed due to budget issues, it was changed in favor for domestic built 4500-ton LPDs to be commissioned by 2013–2016.Chosun Daily - 4천500t급 차기상륙함 윤곽 드러나 10/9/2007 After the construction of the first vessel, a follow-on contract for four additional vessels were awarded to Hyundai Heavy Industries in December 2013.
Ships in the class Name Pennant number Builder Launched Commissioned Decommissioned StatusLST-686Hanjin Heavy Industries11 September 20131 December 2014ActiveLST-687Hyundai Heavy Industries15 December 20151 August 2017ActiveLST-688Hyundai Heavy Industries25 October 20162 April 2018ActiveLST-689Hyundai Heavy Industries2 November 201721 November 2018Active
See also Equivalent landing ships of the same era
Type 072A (Batch 2)
References
External links