ROKN and RAN to Hold Bilateral Exercise in 2012

The ROKN's Sejong the Great class (KDX-3) destroyer (left) and the RAN's Hobart class destroyer (right) are both AEGIS-equipped, making the two ship types highly interoperable.

The governments of the Republic of Korea and Australia recently agreed to increase bilateral military exchanges, including a bilateral naval exercise set to begin next year. The announcement was made on December 14 in Canberra, following a meeting by the two countries' defense ministers.

The two governments agreed to work towards holding bilateral exercises between the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) on a regular basis. Additionally, agreement was also reached to hold regular "2+2" meetings, as the ROK does with the United States, in order to discuss issues, such as Asia-Pacific security, maritime resource protection and military cooperation. "2+2" meetings generally involve meetings between two countries' foreign and defense ministers. Furthermore, an intelligence exchange agreement reached between the two countries in December 2010 is expected to include military intelligence.

It can be said that the ROKN and the RAN are two of a unique kind among navies in Asia, as they share a somewhat common force structure, when it comes to the quantity of power projection capabilities, as evidenced in the two navies' destroyers, frigates and multi-purpose amphibious vessels. The most visible similarity is in the two countries' AEGIS-equipped destroyers, namely the Sejong the Great class (KDX-3) and the Hobart class, which should allow the two navies to conduct a series of comprehensive exercises and operations, including ballistic missile defense (BMD) in both bilateral and multilateral environments.

The two navies have crossed paths previously through port visits and multinational naval exercises, such as the US-led Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises. However, the recent agreements, if implemented faithfully over the coming years, would signal the addition of a significantly important partner for the ROKN, whose most comprehensive exchanges so far have been with the US Navy, followed by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF).