Observing the ROKS Dokdo (LPH 6111)

We are entering an expeditionary era. If the 20th century was dominated by the aircraft carrier, we believe it will be the mothership that dominates the 21st century. The best motherships will support combinations of manned and unmanned deployable platforms, and carries equipment intended for operation on land and at sea. In other words, the best motherships will be big.

This perspective on the future maritime environment explains why we tend to observe closely events surrounding the operations of amphibious ships.

Observe a trend. Most people are aware of the French Mistral class, but few realize South Africa might buy one. The Spanish Juan Carlos class is an excellent ship, and will be a nice addition to Australia. The Japanese Hyuga class and the South Korean Dokdo class are very powerful additions in the Pacific, and it is very possible the Dokdo class will be selected by Turkey for its LPD program. If the F-35B ends up a success story, there will be several nations sporting platforms able to utilize the F-35B at sea.

In the spirit of the amphibious aviation ship, we offer a few videos of the ROKS Dokdo (LPH 6111) conducting operations.

We like that South Korea didn't build the most capable ship, rather a very capable ship.

One of our new favorite blogs is 'Manoeuvre' in Maritime Asia, which appears to be a blog run by an American who goes to school in London and studies South Korea? Interesting nonetheless. As we've been reading back on that blog, we came across this post from back in December, and this interesting comment.

While the LPX Dokdo may be instrumental in a potential war against North Korea, the aircraft carrier appears to have been conceived with a wider array of operations in mind as apparent in the English-language words inscribed along the top of the LPX Dokdo's logo: project power.

I was unable to locate that logo, but I'd like to see it. South Korea is going blue water and wants to be forward deployed. In the 21st century, South Korea is positioning its Navy very well by leading with an expeditionary ship that is flexible with the right metrics to incorporate all of the strategical and tactical ideas of our time for both warfighting and peacemaking.