On the 7th day of the previous month, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Comrade Kim Jong Un had visited the Nampo Special City in North Korea and toured the Nampo Shipyard, which is the largest military shipyard on the west coast of the country. He inspected the construction progress of the newest anti-aircraft warship of North Korea. According to the latest satellite images, this new surface vessel has been completed!

On March 29th, Western commercial reconnaissance satellite companies released the latest satellite photos showing a previously unseen large surface vessel docked at the Nampo Shipyard's wharf. The vessel has an elongated design, and even its deck is covered with camouflage nets.

It is evident that this is the anti-aircraft warship that Comrade Kim Jong Un inspected. It took only over twenty days from his visit for the vessel to be launched. Reversing the timeline, when Comrade Kim Jong Un visited, the vessel was already largely prepared for launching. Therefore, it is likely that he inspected the final preparations before the launch of this vessel.

Big Ivan's last speculation

Of course, the measurement value of 140 meters that we mentioned before was estimated in our article "Handmade 'Subject Version 055'? The first exposure of North Korea's mysterious destroyer, with active phased array radar and vertical launch system!" published by KCNA at the end of 2024. Now looking back, our estimate seems to be quite accurate.

With a length of 140 meters and a width of 15 meters, the main dimensions of this vessel are slightly smaller than those of the Type 052 destroyers equipped by the Chinese Navy in the 1990s but slightly longer than those of Russia's 22350-class frigates.

If we do not consider complex data such as hull coefficient and volume ratio, based on comparisons made by Western commercial satellite picture companies, the normal displacement of this anti-aircraft destroyer of the North Korean Navy should be between 4,000 tons and 5,000 tons, with an estimated normal figure around 4,500 tons. Although this displacement may not seem impressive to us, it is indeed the largest vessel ever built by the People's Army Navy of North Korea.

From the perspective of the vessel's armament, when we looked at KCNA photos in early March, this surface vessel was only painted with a layer of gray rust-proof paint on its outer shell. The deck and even the interior walls were still painted with red rust-proof paint. At that time, all the vessel's armaments were not installed, and due to the factors of KCNA photography, it was unclear how many armaments it had.

Russian 22350-class frigate

Now, with satellite pictures, many details have become clear. According to the interpretation by Western commercial satellite company Osint, it is believed that this North Korean anti-aircraft destroyer has at least two types of vertical launch units: The first type is located at the bow section, which we have mentioned several times as the large pit for vertical launch. This pit appears to be longer horizontally than vertically, and it differs from both the Type 052D and Type 054A in terms of configuration. Western intelligence organizations believe it can accommodate 32 vertical launch cells. The second type is that Western commercial satellite companies think that North Korea’s anti-aircraft destroyer also has a group of vertical launch units in the midship area. However, compared to the bow vertical launch units, these midship vertical launch units appear larger in size, with only 16 units, and are judged as the second model of vertical launch systems.

But Big Ivan couldn’t see where the midship vertical launch units covered by the camouflage net are. For now, we will temporarily adopt the interpretation of the Western satellite company. To be fair, if the People's Army Navy's anti-aircraft destroyer really has 32 units in the front and 16 in the rear, totaling 48 units of the two types of vertical launch cells, it would be quite interesting. There are a few points worth mentioning: Firstly, its vertical launch cell design actually resembles that of the 22350-class frigate. The 22350-class frigate also installs two types of vertical launch cells; there are two groups of eight-cell 3S14-type vertical launch systems on the B gun platform at the bow, and four groups of eight-cell 3K96-type vertical launch cells behind the A gun position at the bow. Altogether, the ship has exactly 48 cells, just like North Korea’s anti-aircraft destroyer. Secondly, however, North Korea’s anti-aircraft destroyer has 32 cells at the A gun position aft, possibly used for installing air defense missiles or other small-diameter tactical missiles. The 16 cells in the midship area are used for installing large tactical missiles as strike modules. This design removes the Russian flavor of the 22350 and resembles the design of the 052D. Thirdly, considering the ship's dimensions and tonnage, North Korea’s anti-aircraft destroyer is more like an enhanced version of the 054A. The 32-cell bow vertical launch system is particularly similar to the 054A, and the additional 500 tons of displacement are used to install the 16 strike modules. This shows that North Korea’s surface ship design is relatively scientific, with some rationality in tonnage allocation, rather than simply mounting large guns on small ships. Fourthly, it is currently unclear what tactical missiles North Korea plans to equip its vertical launch cells with. The vertical launch cells in the midship area will undoubtedly be equipped with Arrow-2 cruise missiles or Rocket-2 nuclear cruise missiles, but it is unclear what kind of air defense missile modules will be installed in the bow air defense missile module. It is likely that North Korea's own "Lightning" air defense missile will be installed. North Korea's technical sources After looking at this type of anti-aircraft destroyer of North Korea, one might have a lot of questions in their mind. Where did the ship's hull design come from?

Completely unclear... The Chinese Navy does not have a similar design, nor does the Russian Navy. Even South Korea's Lee Sun-sin-class destroyers are not designed like this. But to say that North Korea could handle the hull design of a 4,000-ton frigate on its own and ensure that the design reached a fairly high level right from the start, Big Ivan finds it hard to believe. The propulsion system is also unclear. In March, Comrade Kim Jong Un visited the ship, taking a few photos of the ship's chimney section. But surprisingly, the intake area of the chimney is not large. We all know the basic knowledge that if gas turbines are used as propulsion, then large intake openings must be installed near the ship's chimneys or even on the ship to meet the gas turbine's air demand. However, North Korea’s anti-aircraft destroyer has a relatively small intake opening, so it is unclear whether it can meet the gas turbine's air demand. So, although we previously speculated that North Korea's anti-aircraft destroyer might have received support from Russia in terms of gas turbines, or even uses a power unit similar to the 22350-class frigate. After looking at the ship's chimney, Big Ivan is somewhat doubtful about whether this anti-aircraft destroyer has installed the rumored gas turbine power unit. The subsystems of the ship are still missing. When we looked at the construction progress of the ship in early March, Big Ivan said at the time that the ship's phased array radar, vertical launch system, and gun mounts were not installed. Of course, these missing installations are nothing unusual and are normal, requiring installation after the ship is launched into water, allowing sufficient stress release and ensuring higher installation accuracy.

However, when we last saw it, the ship didn't even have any traces of internal wiring and piping. Even if the completion degree before launching was not high, it shouldn't be this empty, almost like an empty hull.

From this detail, it can be seen that the subsystems missing from this North Korean anti-aircraft destroyer are far from complete. We continue to hold the same view as last time: although it has been launched, it is still far from trial runs. Finally, it is somewhat puzzling that North Korea has covered its anti-aircraft destroyer with so much camouflage netting. After all, we all know that launching is just the first step, and afterward, the ship needs to be outfitted. How are you going to outfit it while covering it with so much camouflage equipment? Besides, once it is outfitted, it still needs to be shown to the public. What exactly is the purpose of covering it with camouflage during outfitting?

So, this seems to be North Korea's characteristic makeshift method—preferring to go to extremes rather than neglecting any details of confidentiality. Of course, from the actual effect, the confidentiality effect is just average, and many useful pieces of information are still judged. In summary, North Korea's People's Army Navy's anti-aircraft destroyer is becoming increasingly interesting. Its overall design appears very reasonable with data, conforming to basic warship design principles. However, upon closer examination, it becomes apparent that it lacks too many subsystems, and many of these subsystems do not seem easy to implement. So, what capabilities does the People's Army Navy's anti-aircraft destroyer have, and what is the source of its basic design? This is indeed an interesting question. Let's wait and see if more news about outfitting emerges. Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7492977699309371945/ Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can express your attitude by clicking the 'like' or 'dislike' buttons below.