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Panoramic view of Hanwha Ocean's Geoje shipyard. /Hanwha Ocean

Hanwha Ocean has been officially selected as the preferred bidder for the detailed design and lead ship construction of the Korean Next-Generation Destroyer (KDDX) project. With this, the KDDX project, which had been adrift for over three years over the selection of a contractor, is expected to get fully on track upon the signing of the formal contract.

On July 2, Hanwha Ocean disclosed that it was notified by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) on July 1 of its selection as the preferred bidder for the KDDX detailed design and lead ship construction project.

DAPA and Hanwha Ocean plan to sign the final contract after negotiating the terms and conditions. The contract amount and period will be finalized through these negotiations. Industry insiders expect the contract to be signed as early as late this month or early next month.

The KDDX is a next-generation naval capability project to build six 6,000-ton Korean destroyers using domestic technology. The total project cost is valued at approximately 7.8 trillion won.

Previously, DAPA completed the evaluation of the proposals last month and notified the participating companies of the results. According to the evaluation results, Hanwha Ocean received 93.9542 points, while HD Hyundai Heavy Industries received 93.3675 points. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries led in the technical capability evaluation, but a 1.2-point security deduction was applied due to a past KDDX military secret leak incident.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries filed an objection with DAPA, protesting the application of the security deduction. After reviewing the objection, DAPA decided to maintain the original evaluation results and recently replied to the company.

The KDDX project entered the contractor selection process for detailed design and lead ship construction in late 2023 after completing the conceptual and basic designs. However, the project was delayed for more than three years due to controversies over political interference and ongoing conflicts between the two companies. With the selection of the preferred bidder now made official, the long-stalled project is expected to enter the full-scale implementation phase.

An official from Hanwha Ocean stated, "We feel a heavy sense of responsibility for being selected as the preferred bidder for the KDDX detailed design and lead ship construction project." The official added, "As we have been designated as the preferred bidder based on our advanced naval technology and project execution capabilities, we will sincerely engage in negotiations with the government and do our best to normalize the project."

                                                                                                            Kim Han-seul