South Korea Considers Cruise Missile Packed ‘Arsenal Ship’ For Massive Precision Bombardments: Target North Korea or Japan?

South Korea is reportedly currently considering development of a heavily armed ‘arsenal ship’ of around 5000 tons, which is approximately the size of a large frigate, that will be dedicated to carrying cruise missiles for long range precision bombardments of enemy land targets. The ships may also have a secondary capably against enemy surface ships, and will each reportedly deploy 80 vertical launch cells for cruse missiles. Although many surface destroyer classes deploy more than 80 cells, only a fraction of these cells usually accommodate land attack cruise missiles with others holding various classes of surface to air, anti ship, anti submarine and anti ballistic missile. This means the arsenal ship will likely have much more anti surface firepower than any other surface combatant as all 80 of its cells will be dedicated to housing cruise missiles. Without defences against aircraft, missiles or submarines, the ships will be reliant on escorting destroyers or frigates for protection and and are unlikely to operate independently. 

The South Korean Navy has reported that an arsenal ship in the long term conception phase, with a design having yet to be finalised. South Korea is one of very few countries to deploy indigenous cruise missiles for long range precision strikes from surface warships, and has integrated indigenous missiles from the Hyunmoo series onto its AEGIS destroyers that were jointly developed with the United States, proving an analogue to the American Tomahawk and Chinese YJ-100 missiles. The country's armed forces have for decades prized a long range precision stoke capability, and alongside expansion of the scope of its program to develop ground based ballistic missiles, its ‘arsenal ship’ could be a formidable asset against potential targets. 

North Korea and Japan are expected to be the most affected by the commissioning an arsenal ship, due with South Korea being technically a war with the former and having ongoing territorial disputes and frequent spikes in tensions with the later. The ship’s relatively small size indicates that it is intended primarily to maximise the Navy’s firepower for regional operations, rather than deploying for global power projection operations which heavier ships such as the Sejong the Great Class destroyer will likely be better suited to. South Korea is also reportedly considering developing a stealth destroyer with a bust of one design, the DW8000, having been shown on display at the International Maritime Defense Industry Exhibition 2021 in Busan. The absence of any ‘arsenal ship’ design at the exhibition raised questions regarding whether such a program could be expected to materialise in the near future.