【Figures 1 to 3】The KDX-2 upgrade model exhibited at the Lockheed Martin booth in the United States at the "MADEX 2021 Korea International Maritime Defense Exhibition" (MADEX 2021) with a new mast equipped with a SPY-1F radar, at the 133rd National Defense Project Committee of the Republic of Korea on February 22, 2021, the Korea Defense Equipment Agency (DAPA) decided to upgrade the KDX-2, from 2022 to 2031. The total budget is about 470 billion won (US$420 million). However, during the Busan Maritime Defense Exhibition (MADEX 2021) in early June 2021, personnel from South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) revealed that DAPA was still reviewing the planning of KDX-2 follow-up upgrade projects, such as commercial feasibility studies; At this point, the focus is on replacing many of the old systems used by KDX-2 imported from abroad and facing the problem of disappearing commercial sources, so the focus of the KDX-2 upgrade project should be to replace the ship's original obsolete system with a modern domestic system (such as replacing the ship's combat system, replacing the original Signal MW-08 radar with the LIG Nex1 SPS-550K three-coordinate radar, or replacing the newly developed tow array sonar of South Korea).
【Figure 4】At the 2008 Busan International Maritime Expo, Lockheed Martin displayed an export-type KDX-II destroyer model with a SPY-1F radar, and the SPY-1F radar was also adopted by the Norwegian "Nansen" class frigate, which is said to have been intended to sell this ship to India through a joint venture with Hyundai Heavy Industries, and the same model was shown in 2021.
【Figure 6】In 2009, the second batch of KDX-2A images published in South Korean military publications was equipped with SPY-1F radar, when the South Korean Navy was planning to equip six KDX-2A, but in the end it directly chose to build a new KDX-3 destroyer, and KDX-2A was gone.
【Figure 7】In 2013, the KDX-2 upgrade plan of the French Thales Group replaced the MW80+STIR+SPS-49 with Apar+ Smart-L radar
【Figure 8】SPS-550K three-coordinate radar of LIG Nex1 company in South Korea
