Emil-si class destroyer
| File:DDG Emil-si.png DDG Emil-si as built (1998)
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Emil-si class |
| Operators: | Menghe |
| Preceded by: | Chŏndong-class destroyer |
| Succeeded by: | Haeju-class destroyer |
| Built: | 1993-2005 |
| In service: | 1998-present |
| Planned: | 8+ |
| Completed: | 4 |
| Cancelled: | 4+ |
| Active: | 4 |
| General characteristics Emil-si class destroyer | |
| Type: | Guided missile destroyer |
| Displacement: | 7,100 tonnes fully loaded |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 17.1 m |
| Draught: |
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| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 30 knots |
| Range: | 4,000 nm (7,500 km) at 18 knots |
| Complement: | 320 |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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| Electronic warfare & decoys: |
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| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 2 × GHZ-28 helicopter |
| Aviation facilities: | hangars and landing pad |
The Emil-si class destroyers (Menghean: 에밀시급 구축함 / --市級驅逐艦, Emil-si gŭb Guchugham) were a group of six guided missile destroyers built for the Menghean Navy, with the first ship of the class entering service in 1998. They were designed to provide area air defense for lighter surface warships, such as the Chŏndong-class destroyers, which possessed only short-range anti-aircraft armament. In terms of radar detection and SAM range, they represented a major improvement over previous Menghean destroyers and cruisers, yet they still lagged behind then-leading destroyer designs in the Organized States and Tol Galen.
Though inadequate in their own right, the Emil-si class was an important stepping stone on the way to the Haeju-class destroyers that followed them.
Development
Early work on the Emil-si class destroyers began in 1991, three years after the official establishment of the Socialist Republic of Menghe. During this period, Menghe's naval security threat had diminished, but Naval High Command nevertheless pushed for a fleet modernization program, with the goal of bringing its naval forces closer to parity with other regional powers.
As part of this program, the destroyers of the Emil-si class were intended to provide an umbrella of surface-to-air missile cover for other warships operating nearby, especially surface combatants which lacked long-range SAM weaponry. This included destroyers of the Chŏndong class, with their powerful AShM armament and limited air defense capabilities. Early planners in the new Menghean Navy saw this as a form of specialization, in that it only had to purchase advanced radar equipment for a small subset of destroyers rather than making it standard across the fleet.
Reflecting this specialized role, the new destroyers were fitted with potent anti-air capabilities, far surpassing previous Menghean cruisers and destroyers in their ability to provide area air defense. Their surface-to-surface capabilities, however, remained modest, and their ASW capabilities were limited by outdated sonar equipment. Designers also paid little attention to reduced-RCS superstructure shaping, resulting in ships with a notable lack of stealth.
Design
Anti-Air weapons
The central feature of the Emil-si's armament suite employs the YDG-60 long-range SAM, with all launch systems mounted forward of the bridge. Because the early YDG-60G and N variants rely on a cold launch system, the missiles must be propelled from the ship by compressed gas before the booster ignites. In the interest of saving weight, Menghean designers copied the "revolver" configuration on earlier FSR ships, in which a ring of eight missile tubes rotates over a single compressed-gas valve, which has a single sliding hatch above it. Eight such revolver units are carried, for a total of 64 surface-to-air missiles.
Because the YDG-61 missile is so long, the missile revolver room had to be elevated above the ship's deck, producing a unique raised superstructure that extends along the rear half of the quarterdeck. When viewed from above, this can be seen to have eight large sliding hatches in a 2x4 arrangement, for the outermost VLS cells.
All YDG-61 missiles use TVM guidance provided by a single radar array above the helicopter hangar. This array is capable of simultaneously guiding twelve missiles toward six targets, and tracks targets out to a range of 240 kilometers, though missile range is shorter depending on the variant. Originally, two radar guidance arrays were planned, but the forward one was eliminated to reduce the length of the bridge structure. This halved the number of simultaneous missiles the ship could guide, and produced a roughly 60-degree "blind spot" over the ship's forward arc, in which the ship can track long-distance targets but not engage them.
For self-defense at shorter ranges, the ship carries two eight-box traversing launchers for the YDG-39 SAM, providing full 360-degree coverage. These use SARH guidance from two illumination radars, one fore and one aft. Each of these can only illuminate a single target at a time, though it can guide more than one SAM toward it. The missile cells themselves can only be reloaded in port.
Like previous Menghean and Letnevian warships, the Emil-si class also carried a significant CIWS armament, with four 30mm rotary cannons (two per side). These are aimed by means of separate radar units higher on the superstructure, and cover all angles except a narrow 45-degree rear arc, with most approaches having coverage from two independent mounts. The forward 100mm dual-purpose gun turret is also capable of firing on incoming missiles.
Other armament
In other areas, the Emil-si class were less well-armed. Their only long-range surface-to-surface armament consisted of four YDH-26 anti-ship missiles in angled box launchers, two per side, mainly intended as a self-defense measure. The 100mm gun could also engage surface targets, but without the range of other destroyers' 5-inch weapons. Overall, Emil-si destroyers would have been forced to rely on other surface combatants for protection against enemy warships.
In spite of their escort role, the Emil-si class ships also had relatively poor ASW armament, mainly limited by ammunition capacity. Each ship carried two twin 533mm torpedo tubes, which in practice were loaded only with the YDJH-2 standoff ASW missile. For short-range ASW defense, they carried two RBDJ-21/12 rocket-propelled depth-charge projectors, but these lacked the range to deal with submarines at realistic engagement distances.
Poor onboard ASW capability was partially offset by the ability to transport two GHJ-28 utility helicopters, a capability equivalent to Menghean cruisers at the time. These helicopters could perform ASW missions at longer ranges, and unlike GHZ-28s on the Chŏndong class were rarely armed for anti-surface missions. Pilots did, however, complain about the small size of the landing pad, which made it difficult to conduct takeoff and landing operations in rough seas.
Sensors and electronics
Early publicity models for the Emil-si class suggested that it would feature four passive electronically scanned array radar panels on the superstructure, but these were conspicuously absent on the first ship of the class when launched. It is now known that the designers experienced problems with manufacturing a domestically designed PESA unit, and were forced to re-design the superstructure around a more conventional rotating 3D search radar mast.
The radar systems which are present were imported from the Federation of Socialist Republics, and bear the domestic designations HR-800 for the main set and HR-200 for the secondary set. The duplication of radar systems allows some redundancy in the event that one unit sustains battle damage or experiences technical problems. The HR-800 has a maximum instrumented range of 450 kilometers, though it can only detect a fighter-sized target at half that distance.
In terms of their electronic warfare suite, the Emil-si class were somewhat better off, with six P203 ECM radomes to jam incoming anti-ship missiles. Four 10-tube traversing smoke and chaff launchers provided additional passive protection from anti-ship missiles, while microwave-band datalinks and manually operated signal lamps enabled low-probability of intercept communication. The ships' ESM equipment, however, remained outdated, and they lacked the highly capable HR-280 active-passive surface search system used on other Menghean warships.
Evaluation
In spite of their impressive air defense capabilities, the Emil-si class destroyers were fairly lackluster in most of their combat capabilities, and there are signs that Menghean naval planners considered them a disappointment. While a 1997 copy of the Menghean Navy Gazette projected that eight or nine ships of the class would be constructed in all, only four were ever built. Two more had been laid down, but were cancelled in the wake of the 1999 Menghean financial crisis and sold for scrap in 2001.
Reasons for disappointment in the class were numerous. Without significant surface-to-surface or anti-submarine weaponry, they were limited to the air-defense role, constraining their flexibility. Moreover, even in this role they were handicapped by aging radar systems and a high radar cross section. It has also been reported that the ships suffered problems with their gas turbines, and were in fact limited to a speed of 27 knots. Though still a major advance over Menghe's Chŏndong and Angae-class destroyers, they remained well behind other foreign warships entering service in the late 1990s.
In the long run, however, the Emil-si class destroyers allowed the Menghean Navy to learn a number of important lessons for future ship construction. The destroyer Haeju, commissioned in 2006, incorporated a number of improvements specifically intended to address drawbacks with the Emil-si class, including PESA phased-array radar panels, multipurpose hot-launch VLS, and some use of reduced-RCS hull shaping.
Ships in the class
Starting with the first ship of the class, the Emil-sis were the first Menghean destroyers to be named after cities. Until then, Menghean destroyers from 1964 onward had been named for weather systems. They also bear the hull code GChY, for Guided Missile Destroyer (Guchugham, Yudotan).
| Hull number | Name | Gomun | Sinmun | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GChY-233 | Emil-si | --市 | 에밀시 | 2 February 1993 | 29 May 1995 | 28 October 1998 |
| GChY-235 | Baekjin | 白津 | 백진 | 5 April 1995 | 10 November 1997 | 24 March 2000 |
| GChY-236 | Hwaju | 火州 | 화주 | 26 March 1996 | 12 February 2000 | 9 September 2002 |
| GChY-237 | Jinjŏng | 辰靜 | 진정 | 30 August 1997 | 16 January 2002 | 7 July 2004 |
| N/A | Unknown | N/A | N/A | 4 August 1998 | scrapped | scrapped |
| N/A | Unknown | N/A | N/A | 12 March 1999 | scrapped | scrapped |