U.S. Navy Reviews South Korea’s Chungnam-class as a Candidate for Its Next Frigate

Reports say that the U.S. Navy is reviewing South Korea's Chungnamclass guidedmissile frigate as a candidate for its next foreignordered frigate. According to the report, Japan's Mogamiclass export variant and Turkey's Istanbulclass were also included in the comparison. USNI News, a media outlet specializing in the U.S. Navy, reported that Navy leadership had instructed relevant assessments, including those on surface combatants, to be completed by November 12. This review is being pursued based on an executive action that allows a certain number of ships from foreign shipbuilders to be built overseas in order to supplement the limits of U.S. shipbuilding capacity. The Chungnamclass is the latest frigate in the South Korean Navy and corresponds to the Ulsanclass BatchIII. It is assessed to have improved performance over the existing Ulsanclass series, and domestic shipbuilders are building some of the ships in divided production. USNI analyzed that the introduction of foreign frigates could help fill the gap in the U.S. Navy's surface forces.