Gangwŏn-class training ship
 YD Gangwŏn as commissioned in 1999
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | Anchŏn Naval Yard |
| Operators: | Menghe |
| Succeeded by: | Hwangsa-class training ship |
| Built: | 1977-1981 |
| In commission: | 1979-2021 |
| Planned: | 2 |
| Completed: | 2 |
| Retired: | 2 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Type: | Training ship |
| Displacement: | 4,800 tons full |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 15.8 m waterline |
| Draught: |
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| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 24 knots |
| Range: | 9,700 nautical miles (18,000 km) at 17 knots |
| Complement: |
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| Sensors and processing systems: | 1 × MG-312 Titan hull sonar |
| Armament: |
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| Aviation facilities: | Landing pad, no hangar |
The Gangwŏn class was a type of large training ship used by the Menghean Navy from the 1980s through the 2010s. They were the first purpose-built training ships commissioned in Menghe after the end of the Pan-Septentrion War.
Between 1997 and 2001, Gangwŏn's sister ship Kangjin served as a state yacht for Choe Sŭng-min and other members of the Menghean Navy's high command. She was converted back into a training ship in 2002, and resumed training missions until her decommissioning.
As of 2022, both ships have been retired from active Navy service. Gangwŏn was sold for scrap, but Kangjin is moored in Anchŏn awaiting a final sale and her fate remains uncertain.
Design and description
As large training ships (Daehyŏng Yŏnsŭbham), the Gangwŏn-class training ships were designed to provide naval cadets with at-sea education and navigation experience. In addition to their regular crew, each ship could carry 82 officer cadets. In addition to cadet accommodations, the ships included classrooms, extra navigation rooms, extra communication rooms, and an auditorium for large lectures and entertainment.
Despite their official designation as auxiliaries, the two Gangwŏn-class training ships were relatively well-armed, with two twin 76mm gun turrets forward and two AK-630 30mm rotary turrets aft, both types equipped with anti-air and anti-surface fire control equipment. Between the A and B turrets forward, the ships also carried two HBDJ-21/16 anti-submarine rocket launchers, as well as their below-deck supporting equipment. A radar antenna on the main mast allowed 2D detection and tracking of surface ships and low-flying aircraft, and a sonar dome under the hull provided some anti-submarine detection capability. In addition to allowing cadets to familiarize themselves with common Menghean Navy sensors and weapon systems, this armament allowed the Gangwŏn-class ships to serve as escort or patrol ships in wartime, most likely in rear areas relatively far from enemy threats.
Similarly, a helicopter landing pad on the class's stern allowed helicopter pilots to practice takeoff and landing operations from a moving ship, and would allow a Gangwŏn-class training ship to temporarily embark an anti-submarine helicopter (most likely a Gyundoan-Han GH-28 Ppulsoeori) in wartime, but there was no hangar to support long-term helicopter operations at sea.
Career
Military service
Both Gangwŏn and Kangjin served as training ships with the Menghean People's Navy in the 1980s. Though the MPN's manpower needs only justified the use of a single large training ship, the MPN was preparing to embark on a program of rapid shipbuilding under Sim Jin-hwan when the two training ships were ordered, so the excess capacity would serve future needs.
After the Decembrist Revolution, the new post-coup government began a series of progressive cuts to military spending. This included serious cuts to future shipbuilding plans and the retirement of many older warships. These cuts reduced the annual demand for naval officers trained in blue-water navigation, so Kangjin was retired from active duty in 1989 and put into mothballed storage. Gangwŏn remained in service as the Menghean Navy's sole large training ship.
State yacht conversion
In 1997, as Choe Sŭng-min's cult of personality began accelerating in intensity, the Menghean Navy offered to convert the disused Kangjin into a state yacht for Choe and other top officials. As a training ship, she was well-suited to the new role: her cadet accommodations became accommodations for aides and staff, her instructor accommodations became accommodations for Choe and other top officials, her classrooms and lounges became meeting halls, and her auditorium became an event room and entertainment center. At the same time, she was cheaper to operate than a conventional warship, and would not detract from the Navy's combat strength. And as an armed warship, she reflected Choe Sŭng-min's carefully cultivated image of disciplined military asceticism in a way that a civilian luxury yacht could not. To reduce operating costs, her guns were manned by a reduced crew, trained only to fire gun salutes, and her sonar and ASW battle stations were left unmanned, but she remained an expensive piece of machinery.
Though Kangjin is often mistakenly referred to as Choe Sŭng-min's personal yacht, she was never actually classified as the Chairman's personal property, and was instead operated by the Navy as a state vessel for use by top officials. Choe himself only set foot aboard her on three occasions, and the rest of the time she was used by top staff in the Menghean Navy or kept ashore in Donggyŏng or Songsu-do. Choe halted his visits to the Kangjin entirely after the 1999 Menghean financial crisis, and the Navy rarely used her after 2000.
In 2002, the Kangjin was taken back into maintenance and fitted out as a training ship once more. This time the changes included major maintenance to her engines and other electronic systems. She was commissioned back into service with the hull number YD-452 in 2003, and served in the training role until 2020.
Decommissioning
Though she was the second ship of the pair to be commissioned, Kangjin was decommissioned before Gangwŏn, in 2020. Gangwŏn was decommissioned the next year. Each was replaced by a Hwangsa-class training ship, a type with more modern accommodations and training space and improved auxiliary combat capability.
After Choe Sŭng-min's death, an independent society of concerned citizens raised money to restore her to her 1998 state yacht configuration and preserve her as a museum ship dedicated to Choe Sŭng-min, with some rooms devoted to exhibits on the Chairman's life and other rooms used to host banquets, performances, and other special events. Donations, however, fell below the group's goal, and the Menghean government neither endorsed nor funded the plan, citing its dubious historical value (Choe only visited the ship on three occasions and slept aboard her twice) and the high cost of restoring and maintaining the Kangjin.
As of August 2022, Kangjin was moored to a pier in the city of Anchŏn, but formal dismantling work had not yet begun. Gangwŏn was dismantled soon after her decommissioning, then towed to Haeju to be scrapped.