[Anchor]

While the military has prepared plans to dispatch a military logistics support ship and a maritime patrol aircraft for the deployment of South Korean forces to the Strait of Hormuz, it has been confirmed that the government is leaning toward excluding the logistics support ship. This decision is reportedly due to political burdens and the ship's limited defensive capabilities, with the expected deployment size estimated at around 50 personnel.

This is an exclusive report by military correspondent Kim Taehun.

[Reporter]

The South Korean Navy currently operates four logistics support ships.

Three Cheonji-class ships were launched more than 30 years ago, while the single Soyang-class ship is 10 years old.

Their speed is more than 20% slower than destroyers, and they lack proper weaponry, making their defense capabilities relatively weak.

Although the Soyang-class is relatively modern, its engine and generator systems are currently experiencing issues, raising concerns that a breakdown during operations in the Strait of Hormuz would make it difficult to handle right in the middle of hostile territory.

Due to these reasons, it has been confirmed that the government is strongly considering excluding logistics support ships from the Hormuz deployment assets.

A high-ranking Ministry of National Defense official told SBS, "The support ship itself is problematic, and because it requires a crew of over 100 people, the political burden of deployment would be heavy, so it will be excluded from the deployment forces."

The official added, "Since a support ship merely assists operations, even if it is excluded from the forces, the local operations of the P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team alone will be able to make a substantive contribution."

With the exclusion of 100 personnel from the logistics support ship, the initial deployment scale of "more than 150 personnel" is expected to shrink to "around 50 personnel," combining 20 to 30 crew members and maintenance personnel for the patrol aircraft and 20 to 30 personnel for the EOD team.

If only the patrol aircraft and EOD team are deployed without a logistics support ship, joint operations with foreign military forces will be inevitable.

The patrol aircraft will need to share detection information using data links commonly used by Western nations, and the EOD team is expected to board foreign navy minesweepers and be deployed into joint mine-clearing operations.

(Camera: Kim Hyun-sang | Video Editing: Jung Seong-hoon | Design: Kim Min-young)