Nine ‘Copter Spots, 20 F-35s, Two Islands—South Korea’s New

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Nine ‘Copter Spots, 20 F-35s, Two Islands—South Korea’s New Flattop Takes Shape



A South Korean news website has obtained an official artist’s rendering depicting the final design of Seoul’s future light aircraft carrier.

The vessel boasts nine spots for helicopters on its deck, space for up to 20 F-35B jump jets and two islands—one each for controlling the ship and overseeing flight operations.

The split-island design reflects British involvement in the carrier’s development. The Royal Navy’s two Queen Elizabeth-class flattops also feature separate islands.

The South Korean joint chiefs of staff in July 2019 decided to acquire an assault ship capable of operating fixed-wing aircraft—in effect, a light carrier. The vessel could cost a billion dollars or more.

The government in Seoul tapped shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries to manufacture the hull—and enlisted British carrier-maker Babcock to help. The carrier’s design evolved through 2020. Early concepts included a single island like on American carriers and assault ships.

Twin-island designs widely are considered ugly, but the benefit is obvious. A ship as large as an aircraft carrier needs two stacks for venting exhaust, assuming it has a conventional powerplant rather than a nuclear one.

In other words, two structures need to penetrate the flight deck. A designer’s options, then, are to enclose both stacks in a single superstructure or build two smaller superstructures around each stack.

The latter saves deck space. Hyundai Heavy Industries and Babcock took advantage of that space to move an elevator from the middle of the deck to the area between the islands. That should ease congestion during intensive flight ops.

Ops likely will involve F-35Bs making rolling take-offs along the length of the deck. The South Korean carrier lacks expensive, bulky catapults—just like British, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Spanish carriers do.

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