Dosan Ahn Changho, First K-Submarine to Cross the Pacific Ocean

A Record-Breaking 14,000 km Voyage to Victoria
Canadian Crew On Board for Korea-Canada Joint Training

The Republic of Korea Navy’s flagship submarine, the Dosan Ahn Changho, is departing for joint training with the Royal Canadian Navy. This marks the first time a Korean submarine will cross the Pacific Ocean, and it is expected to be the longest voyage ever undertaken by a Korean submarine.

Dosan Ahn Changho is Korea's first 3,000-ton class submarine and a state-of-the-art vessel capable of carrying ballistic missiles. The photo shows the launching ceremony held in 2018 at Hanwha Ocean in Dumo-dong, Geoje City, Gyeongnam. Photo by The Asia Business Daily

On March 25, the Navy announced that the Dosan Ahn Changho would depart from the Jinhae Naval Base for Canada to participate in the Korea-Canada Navy Combined Cooperation Training scheduled for June. The one-way distance to the destination, Victoria on Canada’s west coast, is approximately 14,000 km (about 7,700 nautical miles).

The purpose of the Dosan Ahn Changho’s visit to Canada is not only for the training exercise but also to play a decisive role in the bidding war for Canada’s patrol submarine project (CPSP), which is estimated to be worth up to 60 trillion won. This deployment serves as the military authorities’ final push to secure the project for Korea.

The Dosan Ahn Changho is a 3,000-ton-class submarine and the first vessel of the Jangbogo-III Batch-I series. “Batch” refers to a group of vessels built to the same design, with performance improvements made from Batch-I to Batch-III. The Batch-I program, which included the Dosan Ahn Changho, the second vessel Ahn Mu, and the third vessel Shin Chaeho, has been fully completed and deployed. For Canada, Korea has proposed the Jangbogo-III Batch-II model. The first Batch-II vessel, the Jang Youngsil, was launched last year and is currently undergoing trials and evaluation. It is a 3,600-ton-class submarine with increased size and improved performance, featuring a propulsion system that combines lithium-ion batteries with Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP) technology. The number of Vertical Launching System (VLS) cells has also been increased.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.