Militarymedia.net - Colombia - Following in the footsteps of the Philippine Navy, which last year received a corvette used by the South Korean Navy, now it is the Colombian Navy's turn to receive a Pohang Class corvette grant. The warship that was granted, previously named ROKS Iksan (PCC-768) and was handed over to the Colombian Navy at Lanal Jinhae on September 28, 2020. With the transfer of ownership, the corvette produced by Hyundai Heavy Industries has changed its name to ARC Almirante Tono with hull number 56.
Even though it was a gift, South Korea handed over this corvette in a pretty good condition, after going through the reconditioning program, it appears that when it was handed over, ARC Almirante Tono was still equipped with the OTO Melara 76 mm cannon and 40 L / 70 mm Otobreda. In the Pohang Class corvette, the two arms packages in the bow are also adopted in the same configuration at the stern, so there are twin canons for the OTO Melara 76 mn and the Otobreda 40mm L / 70 twin naval. This configuration makes the battleship's strength posture evenly distributed at the front and rear.
The South Korean Navy officially retired ROKS Iksan on December 31, 2018, from its history, this 1,222 ton corvette was launched on March 24, 1987, when it was inaugurated this ship was labeled ROKS Iri and joined the South Korean Navy fleet in September 1988. Manun, the name of this warship then changed to ROKS Iksan in 1999.
Pohang Class is classified as a best-selling corvette, a total of 24 corvettes were successfully built, of which 18 units are still operating, not only by South Korea, the Philippines and Colombia, the Pohang Class is also used by Vietnam, Egypt and Peru.
In the first-generation Pohang Class, the corvette was equipped with four Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers, but as these warships became older the Harpoon option was scrapped. For the Colombian Navy, this is not the first time that it has received a warship grant from South Korea, previously Colombia had received a unit of Donghae Class corvettes in 2011.
One of the Pohang Class, namely ROKS Cheonan, was sunk due to a torpedo attack from a North Korean submarine (Yeono Class) on the incident March 26, 2010, this incident killed 46 crew members of the ROKS Cheonan ship. The Pohang Class is actually equipped with anti-submarine capabilities, in the form of a 3 x 2 Mark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo torpedo launcher and a sea bomb - 12 x Mark 9 depth charges.
Although they will gradually be retired, there are still around 12 Pohang Class units operated by the South Korean Navy, where the latest generation of this corvette is equipped with 2 x 2 SSM-700K Haeseong anti-ship missiles and Mistral hanud missiles. Seeing that the stock is still quite large, it seems that many countries will be interested in the Pohang Class, perhaps including Indonesia which is strengthening its littoral fleet.
