Abandoned 1990s concepts for 'Arsenal Ships' get a second chance thanks to South Korea

This new ship will also be complemented by other news that South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Promotion Committee (DAPA) plans to invest 600 billion won (about $467 million) between 2024 and 2036 to develop a new ship-to-surface ballistic missile. DAPA has also explained how the new missile differs from the nation's existing cruise missile "Haeryong." Once mounted on the newest Aegis destroyer and "Joint Firepower Ship" of the ROK Navy, DAPA anticipates the new missile will demonstrate deterrence capabilities against North Korean nuclear and missile threats.

Plans for these ships emerged in August 2019 at around the same time as the CVX aircraft carrier project, but everything has gone quiet until now. By the end of this year, Naval News reports, the ROK Navy intends to complete the concept design of the ship, including its size, shape, missile capacity, and ROC (Required Operational Capability). Construction will start if the project's viability is determined in the ensuing design phase.

The new ship is based, it seems, on an American ship design from the 1990s. The "Arsenal Ship" was a proposed massive warship with 500 armored missile silos and a crew of no more than 50 sailors. At that time, it was envisaged that such a ship would carry many Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles or a combination of anti-air, anti-submarine, and land-attack cruise missiles. It would also be partly remotely controlled by other warships in the fleet, like an Aegis cruiser or destroyer, and act, in this sense, as a "remote magazine" for the fleet.

However, given its reliance on support ships, it would have been very vulnerable to attack (since it lacked sonar and radar) and useless for any other action. For this reason, it was eventually mothballed as an idea.

Whatever the case, by the late 2020s, the ROK Navy hopes to acquire three of these ships, each of which will be equipped with more than 80 missiles, allowing them to perform a preventive strike on North Korea's interior military installations in the case of an impending missile attack. We may also see other navies, like the United States Navy, giving the concept another look in years to come if the ROK proves successful.