Article Posted on : - Jun 03, 2011

SEOUL (BNS): The South Korean Navy has deployed its second high-tech Aegis destroyer after nine months of trials, according to a news report.

The new destroyer named after one of Korea's most prominent Confucian scholars, Yulgok Yi I, was put in service on Wednesday and assigned to the Navy's 7th fleet, a Yonhap report said.

The 7,600-ton KDX-III destroyer will carry out anti-air and anti-ship defence mission in waters on three sides of the Korean Peninsula, a Navy official was quoted as saying.

South Korea began building Aegis destroyers under a Navy buildup project, code-named "KDX-III." Three destroyers have been built since 2004. The first ship was commissioned in 2008 and the third ship was launched early this year, the report said.

The 166-meter-long KDX III destroyer can carry about 120 missiles and torpedoes in its vertical launch system. It can also carry two mid-sized helicopters and sail at a top speed of 30 knots within a range of 1,000 kilometers.