Submarine Park Wi with 28 years of accident-free voyage

Submarine Park Wi (1,200 ton), a Jang Bogo-class submarine of the Navy, achieved a record of 300,000 miles of accident-free voyage. The Navy's Submarine Command announced on Monday that it held a commemorative event at the base in Jinhae-gu, Changwon City, South Gyeongsang Province, under the supervision of Kim Seung-gwon, commander of the 92nd Submarine Squadron.

According to the Navy, 300,000 miles is the distance that submarine Park Wi has sailed over 28 years, from the unit's founding on Sept. 9, 1994, to May 7, 2023, which is equivalent to about 13 circumnavigations of the Earth.

Submarine Park Wi is the 4th Jangbo-class submarine built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (now Hanwha Ocean), launched on May 21, 1994, and commissioned on Aug. 31, 1995. The submarine's name was derived from General Park Wi, who defeated the Red Turban Rebellions and Japanese raiders at the end of the Goryeo Dynasty. In 1389, as chief circuit commissioner of Gyeongsang Province, Gen. Park Wi led about 100 warships to conquer Daemado (Tsushima Island).

Among domestic submarines, the 300,000-mile accident-free voyage is second only to Jang Bo-go of the same class in October 2019. An official from the Navy said, "While the Jang Bogo was built and acquired by a local company in Germany, submarine Park Wi is a domestically built submarine, which proves the excellence of domestic submarine construction and maintenance technology."

Submarine Park Wi participated in the "Keynote-IV" joint exercise held in the southern Philippine waters in 1997 for the first time as a Korean Navy submarine. In 2000 and 2018, it participated in the Rim Pacific Exercise (Rim of the Pacific Exercise), a multinational joint maritime exercise led by the United States.


Sang-Ho Yun ysh1005@donga.com