Seoul to upgrade amphibious assault ship with enhanced CMS, sensors

An image of the Republic of Korea Navy's second Dokdo-class LPH amphibious assault ship, ROKS Marado . South Korea has initiated a project to upgrade first-of-class Dokdo with enhanced combat management system and sensors. (RoKN)

South Korea has initiated a project to upgrade the Republic of Korea Navy's (RoKN's) ROKS Dokdo landing platform helicopter (LPH) amphibious assault ship with an enhanced combat management system (CMS) and sensors.

South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced on 29 October that the new equipment to be installed on Dokdo was finalised in a meeting earlier in October. The installation of the new equipment will start from July 2025.

DAPA said Dokdo 's CMS will be improved to the configuration integrated into the RoKN's Ulsan-class Batch III frigates, also known as the Chungnam (FFX-III)-class guided-missile frigates.

In April 2023 Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) launched the first FFX-III-class frigate, named ROKS Chungnam . The RoKN will acquire five more frigates, which have an overall length of 129 m, a width of 15 m, and can displace about 3,500 tonnes.

According to Janes Fighting Ships , Dokdo and the FFX-III-class vessels are equipped with Hanwha Systems' Naval Shield Integrated Combat Management System (ICMS). The FFX-III-class is equipped with a more advanced version of the Naval Shield ICMS.

According to Hanwha Systems, FFX-III-class vessels are equipped with the “Baseline 3” version of the company's CMS. Baseline 3 features high computing, real-time middleware, and virtual technologies based hardware and modular software architecture. The FFX-III-class CMS can integrate and process information collected from the vessel's sensors as well as from external sources to guide the vessel's operations.