Text Fwd: S. Korea Opens Aegis Training Center

* Text informed by Rick Rozoff and Bruce Gagnon

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4083053&c=ASI&s=SEA
Defense News, May 9, 2009
S. Korea Opens Aegis Training Center
By JUNG SUNG-KI

-The AOMTC [Aegis Operation Management Training Center] is the second facility of its kind in the world after the U.S. Navy's Aegis Training and Readiness Center (ATRC).

SEOUL - South Korea's Navy has opened a state-of-the-art facility for training its sailors in the operation, maintenance and employment of the U.S. Aegis Combat System, its officials said May 10.

Headquarter at the Naval Education and Training Command in Jinhae, about 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, Aegis Operation Management Training Center (AOMTC), offers technical training courses designed to help individuals master the operation of the Aegis Combat/Weapon System installed on 7,600-ton KDX-III destroyers, they said.

The Aegis system developed by Lockheed Martin is the world's premier surface-to-air/fire-control system, capable of simultaneous operations against aircraft, ballistic and cruise missiles, ships and submarines.

The Korean Navy has launched two of its three planned Aegis-equipped destroyers with the lead ship, Sejong the Great, having been operational since last December. The service plans to commission one more hull by 2012.

The KDX-III's SPY-1D radar is one of the most advanced ones among Aegis radar systems deployed around the world. It can track about 1,000 aircraft within a 500-kilometer radius simultaneously, providing full 360-degree coverage.

The AOMTC is the second facility of its kind in the world after the U.S. Navy's Aegis Training and Readiness Center (ATRC), the service said in a news release.

"With the opening of AOMTC, the South Korean Navy will be able to nurture capable Aegis controlmen for itself," it said, adding the service plans to invite U.S. instructors at ATRC until 2013 to accumulate skills to operate the ship-based combat system.

In addition, through the exchange of Aegis-related technologies between the center and maintenance units, the service will be able to manage and repair the Aegis Combat System independently, which will help save the budget for outsourcing maintenance of the Aegis system to the U.S., it said.

The 19-month-long construction of AOMTC that began October 2007 is part of offset deals between the Korean government and Lockheed Martin on building the KDX-III destroyer, according to the release.

The 2,190-square-meter facility has a total of seven electronic classrooms, approximately 100 personnel equipment and a Combat Command Center (CCC) that emulates the command-and-control center of Sejong the Great, it said.

The trainings at AOMTC will provide students with opportunities to acquire required knowledge, skills and abilities to effectively mange and operate the up-to-date self-defense naval combat system, it stated.

Students can also learn equipment configuration familiarization, command-and-control principles, and individual or team decision-making through 20 consoles connected one another, it said.

In 2010, the Navy will expand AOMTC into a broader naval combat system educational center in which sailors can obtain operational skills of the country's high-tech vessels, such as the 14,000-ton Dokdo-class Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH), the 450-ton Patrol-Killer Guided Missile (PKG) and the 2,300-ton FFX frigate, it added.
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