ROKN programs other than surface ships

Trump “Approves” South Korea's Nuclear Submarine Construction
https://www.cnn.co.jp/world/35239856.html(CNN) U.S. President Donald Trump stated in a social media post on the 29th that he had “approved” South Korea's construction of nuclear submarines.

Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social: “Our military alliance is stronger than ever before. Based on this alliance, we have approved the construction of nuclear submarines for South Korea, replacing the outdated and less agile diesel-powered submarines they currently possess.”

The submarines are to be built at the Philadelphia Shipyard in Pennsylvania.


Trump: “Approval for South Korea to build nuclear-powered submarines... to be constructed at U.S. shipyard in Philadelphia”
https://n.news.naver.com/article/033/0000049719?cds=news_media_pc&type=editnU.S. President Donald Trump announced on the 30th (Korean time), the day after the South Korea-U.S. summit, that he had approved the construction of South Korea's nuclear-powered submarines. President Trump stated via his social media platform Truth Social that day, "The South Korea-U.S. military alliance is stronger than ever before,“ adding, ”Accordingly, I have approved South Korea to build nuclear-powered submarines instead of the outdated, less maneuverable diesel submarines it currently possesses."

This approval is interpreted as requiring revisions or supplements to the U.S.-South Korea Nuclear Agreement, along with U.S. technical support and fuel supply.

. He added, “They will be built at the Philly Shipyard (Lupia Shipyard),” and declared, “The U.S. shipbuilding industry will soon experience a major revival.” The Philly Shipyard, acquired by Hanwha Group last December, can be seen as a symbol of Korea-U.S. shipbuilding cooperation. Hanwha Group announced in August that it would invest an additional $5 billion (7 trillion won) in the Philadelphia shipyard as part of the bilateral shipbuilding industry cooperation project ‘MASGA’ (Make American Shipbuilding Great Again).
 
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If they're talking about building nuke boats in the US, that must imply US reactors (otherwise Korea would just build them domestically). For which there is no real production slack, even before AUKUS kicks in.
 
I gather it's the Hanwha yard that's going to be doing the work as that's where most of the investments going. I'm wondering if they'll import the workforce as well (hopefully avoiding Hyundi's(?) embarrassing issue with ICE) given the US's shortage of qualified welders etc. That said, Korean interest in working in the US is at a pretty low ebb after that whole ICE thing. Fuckup from the Korean side visa wise, major, major pooch screw on the PR side by ICE.

https://www.hanwha.com/companies/hanwha-ocean.do
Hanwha's shipyard near the Port of Okpo in South Korea’s Geoje.
1761879730946.png
 
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TomS said:
If they're talking about building nuke boats in the US, that must imply US reactors (otherwise Korea would just build them domestically). For which there is no real production slack, even before AUKUS kicks in.
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Not necessarily, South Korea has a nuclear industry, it may just imply US assistance in the development of a Korean design. Doing it in the US would be a better security environment (close to US nuclear engineering facilities and far away from Chinese spies) and looks better from a Trumpian economics pov. Hell, they probably don't even have to worry about tariffs.
 
jeffb said:
Not necessarily, South Korea has a nuclear industry, it may just imply US assistance in the development of a Korean design. Doing it in the US would be a better security environment (close to US nuclear engineering facilities and far away from Chinese spies) and looks better from a Trumpian economics pov. Hell, they probably don't even have to worry about tariffs.
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Would we allow them to import a Korean reactor to the US? Very skeptical.
 
Qualifying a third SSN yard for the US has a certain attraction given the issues in increasing production rate for the existing yards, but the issues around turning a foreign-owned, commercial, non-nuke yard into a foreign-owned, military, nuclear, submarine yard have to be huge. Just commercial to military is a big step, you need physical security for the yard, clearances for your staff, and when that's in place you have a whole new set of procedures and standards to adapt to. Then military surface vessel to military SS is another big step in processes, and adding the nuclear capability cranks the complexity of standards and security up to 11.

From the South Korean side of things, I think they'd be best off signing up to access the AUKUS reactor and building it in a South Korean naval yard, but that probably falls short on the built in America by Americans side of things for the US government.

The other interesting thing here is that it's a further loosening of the USA's historical refusal to allow the spread of nuclear submarine technology to even allied powers that developed its first cracks with AUKUS. So who's next? Japan? Canada?
 
Adding South Korean SSNs to the build programme does raise the question of whether BWX has the production capacity to deal with all the reactors needed for the outstanding USN Virginias (16), the RAN Virginias (3-5), the Columbias (12), SSN(X) (17-33) and the South Korean boats (at least 3?).
 
Combat-Master said:
"NEW - South Korea reveals its "Jangbogo N Project," the development of domestically produced nuclear-powered submarines, with the first one expected to be ready mid 2030."
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This will be interesting to watch, the fun question will be whether ROKN goes with the French style LEU reactors with their 8-10 year refuelings, old-US-and-Russian style HEU with 25 year refuelings, or new-US style HEU life of ship reactors (40-50 year "refuelings").
 
Scott Kenny said:
This will be interesting to watch, the fun question will be whether ROKN goes with the French style LEU reactors with their 8-10 year refuelings, old-US-and-Russian style HEU with 25 year refuelings, or new-US style HEU life of ship reactors (40-50 year "refuelings").
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Reuters reporting that it will be LEU type reactor

"The nuclear-powered submarine, which will be built on the basis of a strong South Korea-U.S. alliance, is a symbol of our will to take responsibility for peace and security on the Korean Peninsula," President Lee Jae Myung told a committee examining the country's future defence strategy.

The submarine will use low-enriched uranium fuel and be developed and built in South Korea, Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said, laying out South Korea's ‌basic ⁠plan for securing nuclear-powered submarines."


https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-...ar-powered-submarine-by-mid-2030s-2026-05-26/
 

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