On October 18th, during the National Defense Committee’s audit at the military headquarters in Gyeryongdae, the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy stated that they are pushing to professionalize its crews by 2030. The move would see all small vessels in the fleet crewed with experienced petty officers (PO) and officers. Larger vessels such as frigates and destroyers would retain a minimal number of enlisted seamen but the majority of the crews would consist of officers.
In South Korea, where military service is mandatory, the ROK Navy recruit sailors through an application process. Between 2018 and 2022, the Navy’s recruitment rate dropped by 30%, falling short of the manpower they required. The Navy believes that the decline is due to difficult working conditions, a longer service period compared to the Army, and restrictions on communication, mobile phone use, and leave, all of which discourage applications to the Navy.
Additionally, the ROK Navy states that ship duties, which require a high level of expertise, should be assigned to petty officers and officers who serve for longer periods, rather than enlisted sailors with a 20-month service term. This shift, they believe, is essential for maintaining the Navy’s operational readiness, which is crucial for ensuring constant operational capability. The Navy views this approach as necessary to tackle ongoing challenges, and additional increase in regional security threats such as North Korea’s nuclear development and provocations that threaten peace around the Korean Peninsula.
The ROK Navy is promoting increased officer staffing operations and complete officer staffing operations for its vessels to address this challenge. The increased officer staffing operation is primarily applied to larger vessels, such as frigates, destroyers, and landing ships. While maintaining a small number of sailors in specific military specialties, such as deck operations and cooking, the proportion of officers is increased as much as possible.
In contrast, complete officer staffing operations are applied to smaller vessels, such as minesweepers, PKGs (Patrol Killer Guided-missile), small patrol vessels, and MTBs (Multi-purpose Training Boats).
Since 2022, the Navy has been conducting a pilot program for this transition on select vessels. Currently, a total of twelve ships are involved in the trial: six destroyers, one frigate, and one landing ship are under increased officer staffing operations, while one small vessel from each of the previously mentioned classes, totaling four vessels, is undergoing complete officer staffing operations.
The ROK Navy reported that by implementing increased officer staffing and complete officer staffing across all Navy vessels by 2030, they expect to deploy approximately 500 petty officers and officers while reducing 1,200 enlisted personnel, leading to an overall reduction of around 700 service members.
According to the Navy, the replacement ratio of enlisted personnel to officers is 2.5 to 1, meaning one officer will take over the duties previously handled by 2.5 conscripts. This is expected to reduce the overall crew size by approximately 10%.
The Navy also stated that although the workload for officers has increased somewhat, they believe it can be managed through a task-sharing system, as during the trial phase on twelve ships, they were able to reduce manpower by around 180 personnel. In response to concerns about the increased workload for officers, the Navy plans to implement initiatives such as integrating dock watch duties, expanding the use of cooking equipment and semi-processed food supplies to reduce cooking tasks, and supporting programs for vessel cleaning, mooring assistance, and fuel supply services.
Meanwhile, as the Navy’s measures to address the decreasing manpower issue are crucial, there is a growing call for improving the treatment of petty officers and officers, who will play a key role in effective operational management, and for providing additional national support to help the Navy address these challenges.
The Navy is also advancing unmanned fleet and unmanned surface vessel projects to tackle manpower challenges and adapt to future battlefield environments. Earlier this year, Hanwha Ocean was selected as the preferred bidder for the conceptual design of a reconnaissance unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) and a mine warfare unmanned surface vessel (USV). Additionally, LIG Nex1 achieved success during the firing test of the Poniard from an unmanned surface vessel as part of the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) at RIMPAC 2024 and was selected as the preferred bidder for the system development of the Navy’s reconnaissance USV.
Recently, DAPA (Defense Acquisition Program Administration) announced in its National Assembly audit report that a combat USV was selected for the “Integrated Requirement Planning” pilot project, which aims to shorten the acquisition period for advanced combat capabilities by integrating analysis, requirement verification, and preliminary research before the official requirement decision.
