Overview
Yangyang is the Republic of Korea Navy’s six-hull mine sweeper/hunter class spanning the original three ships and the later Phase II trio.
Developed for Republic of Korea Navy, Yangyang-class mine sweeper hunter belongs to the Mine warfare vessels family and is associated with Post-Cold War and Twenty-first century. Its documented designations include Minehunter and Mine countermeasures vessel, while its intended roles include Mine hunting, Mine sweeping, and Mine countermeasures.
Development and construction
The class expands Korean MCM capability beyond the smaller Ganggyeong coastal minehunters.
The documented program for Yangyang-class mine sweeper hunter lists 6 planned, 6 ordered, 6 laid down, 6 completed, and 0 cancelled, with construction beginning in 1999 and construction ending in 2023. These figures define the scale and chronology currently supported by the class sources.
Design characteristics and intended role
The surviving classification data associates Yangyang-class mine sweeper hunter with Glass-reinforced plastic hull, Voith Schneider propulsion, and Mechanical and influence sweeping. Read together with the recorded roles of Mine hunting, Mine sweeping, and Mine countermeasures, these attributes show the operational problem the design was intended to address without implying specifications that the sources do not establish.
The class record identifies Republic of Korea Navy as the principal design or service authority. Where individual ships changed navy, name, or pennant, those later identities are retained on the ship pages rather than treated as separate vessels.
Service history and class roster
Yangyang, Ongjin, Haenam, Namhae, Hongseong and Goseong form the six-hull roster; current bilateral exercises confirm continued operational use of the class.
The class roster currently links 6 ships. Named members include ROKS Goseong, ROKS Haenam, ROKS Hongseong, ROKS Namhae, ROKS Ongjin, and ROKS Yangyang. The linked ships are associated with Republic of Korea Navy.
Historical significance
The later Phase II hulls show the persistence of the dedicated Korean mine-warfare lineage.
Yangyang-class mine sweeper hunter is most useful when read as both a design and a group of individual careers. The class page establishes the shared technical and operational context; the linked ship pages preserve differences in construction, service identity, deployment, transfer, preservation, and fate where those details are documented.
Ships in this class
Showing 6 recorded class members.
Sources and further reading
- U.S. Navy, ROK Navy Complete Combined Mine Warfare Exercise ↗Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet · accessed 2026-09-20
- List of active Republic of Korea Navy ships ↗WikiMili · accessed 2026-09-20
- Yangyang-class minesweeper ↗Kiwix Wikipedia mirror · accessed 2026-09-20
- Republic of Korea 2008 Defense White Paper ↗Ministry of National Defense, Republic of Korea · accessed 2026-09-20