ROKS Yi Cheon

	ROKS Yi Cheon at Guam on 19 March 1999.
History
South Korea
Name	Yi Cheon; (이천); Lee Chun ;
Namesake	Yi Cheon
Ordered	12 August 1976
Builder	DSME
Launched	12 September 1991
Acquired	30 April 1994
Commissioned	20 June 1994
Identification	SS-062
Status	Active
General characteristics
Class and type	Jang Bogo-class submarine
Displacement	1,180 t surfaced; 1,285 t submerged;
Length	55.9 m (183 ft 5 in)
Beam	6.4 m (21 ft 0 in)
Draft	5.9 m (19 ft 4 in)
Propulsion	4 MTU Type 12V493 AZ80 GA31L diesel engines; 1 Siemens electric motor; 1 shaft; 4,600 hp (3,400 kW);
Speed	11 knots (20 km/h) surfaced; 21 knots (39 km/h) submerged[citation needed];
Range	11,300 nmi (20,900 km) surfaced at 4 knots (7.4 km/h)
Endurance	50 days
Complement	5 officers, 26 enlisted
Armament	8 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes; 14 SST-4 torpedoes;

ROKS Yi Cheon (SS-062) is the second ship of the Jang Bogo-class submarine of the Republic of Korea Navy, and was the second submarine to serve with the navy. She is one of Jang Bogo-class submarines to be built in South Korea.

Development

At the end of the 1980s the South Korean navy started to improve its overall capability and began to operate more advanced vessels. South Korea purchased its first submarines, German U-209 class in its Type 1200 subvariant, ordered as the Jang Bogo class. These boats are generally similar to Turkey's six Atilay-class submarines, with German sensors and weapons.^[2]

The first order placed late in 1987 covered three boats, one to be completed in Germany and the other two in South Korea from German-supplied kits. There followed by two additional three-boat orders placed in October 1989 and January 1994 for boats of South Korean construction. The boats were commissioned from 1993 to 2001.

The older boats were upgraded, it is believed that the modernization included a hull stretch to the Type 1400 length, provision for tube-launched Harpoon missiles and the addition of a towed-array sonar.^[3]

Construction and career

ROKS Yi Cheon was built by Daewoo Shipbuilding and launched on 12 September 1991. She was acquired by the navy on 30 April 1994 and commissioned on 20 June 1994.

Exercise Tandem Thrust 1999

She participated in HARPOONEX, part of a live-fire, multinational naval exercise with the United States Navy during which a decommissioned cruiser, USS Oklahoma City (CG-5), was sunk by Yi Cheon.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Imaging Command. 1988-ca. 1993 (Predecessor); Department of Defense. Defense Audiovisual Agency (Predecessor); Department of Defense. American Forces Information Service. Defense Visual Information Center. 1994- (1999-03-19). Sailors onboard the Korean submarine LEE CHUN stand at the ready, as they prepare to go pier-side in Apra Harbor, Guam. The Koreans are joining by other allied forces in Guam to participate in Exercise TANDEM THRUST '99. Series: Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files, 1921 - 2008.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ "ROKN Chang Bogo Class Submarines". Naval Technology. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
^ "South Korea Submarine Capabilities | NTI". www.nti.org. Retrieved 2020-08-15.

External links

[USArchives-6527206-1] Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Imaging Command. 1988-ca. 1993 (Predecessor); Department of Defense. Defense Audiovisual Agency (Predecessor); Department of Defense. American Forces Information Service. Defense Visual Information Center. 1994- (1999-03-19). Sailors onboard the Korean submarine LEE CHUN stand at the ready, as they prepare to go pier-side in Apra Harbor, Guam. The Koreans are joining by other allied forces in Guam to participate in Exercise TANDEM THRUST '99. Series: Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files, 1921 - 2008.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[2] "ROKN Chang Bogo Class Submarines". Naval Technology. Retrieved 2020-08-15.

[3] "South Korea Submarine Capabilities | NTI". www.nti.org. Retrieved 2020-08-15.

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