[Exclusive] Hanwha Ocean Wins Orders for Escort Ships No. 5 and 6... Defeats HD Hyundai Heavy Industries [Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club]

First Order Achievement After Acquiring Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering
Suppressing Technology Leakage, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Makes KDDX Prospects Hopeful

Hanwha Ocean has won the Navy's next-generation frigate construction project. This is the first order since Hanwha acquired Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. Especially, having surpassed its competitor HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, it signals fierce competition in future warship construction projects.

A government official said on the 14th, "Regarding the bid for Ulsan-class Batch-Ⅲ ships No. 5 and 6, after conducting on-site inspections at the project site, Hanwha Ocean was selected as the preferred negotiator, beating HD Hyundai Heavy Industries by a margin of 0.14 points."

The Navy's 'Ulsan-class Batch-Ⅲ' project involves constructing six 3,500-ton latest-model frigates to replace aging frigates and patrol ships, serving as the next-generation Aegis-class frigate project. The first ship was ordered by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in March 2020 for 400 billion KRW, and ships No. 2 to 4 were reportedly ordered by SK Ocean Plant (formerly Samkang M&T) in January last year at approximately 330 to 350 billion KRW per ship.

The selection of contractors for ships No. 5 and 6 was reportedly influenced significantly by technological capabilities. Given the controversy over 'low-price bidding' during the selection of ships No. 2 to 4, the government intended to select contractors for ships No. 5 and 6 at around 400 billion KRW per ship. In particular, the industry viewed HD Hyundai Heavy Industries' guilty verdict in September 2020 for allegedly leaking the KDDX concept design as a weakness. Due to this ruling, Hyundai Heavy Industries has been penalized with a 1.8-point deduction in weapons system proposal evaluations for three years starting November last year.

Hanwha Ocean proposed frigates equipped with combat systems developed by Hanwha Systems and applied a hybrid propulsion system to minimize underwater radiated noise, incorporating the latest warship technologies. Notably, they plan to build an indoor assembly plant capable of constructing two surface ships simultaneously, installing two indoor cranes with a capacity of 300 tons each to shorten assembly and installation processes.

Industry insiders expect that the shipbuilder winning the Ulsan-class Batch-Ⅲ project will secure a favorable position in next year's planned 'Next-Generation Korean Destroyer (KDDX)' project. KDDX is the first domestically produced destroyer project, with hull and various armaments developed using domestic technology. The project scale is a total of 7.8 trillion KRW.