The Colombian Navy (Armada Nacional de la Republica de Colombia) received their 2nd Flight IV Pohang-class corvette donated by the South Korean government. The 1,220-ton corvette, formerly ROKS Iksan (PCC-768), was retired from Republic of Korea Navy service in December 2018, and was re-commissioned as ARC Boyacá. This follows an earlier donation of a Donghae-class corvette. The Colombian Navy received three vessels from South Korea in late July, including a second-hand guided-missile corvette and two new offshore patrol vessels. The two OPVs were built to Colombian order at a South Korean shipyard, are to be followed by a third vessel which is currently being built in Colombia.
ROKS Iksan was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries and launched as “ROKS Iri” on March 24th, 1987. She entered service on September 1988 and was renamed as ROKS Iksan on February 1999 when the namesake city was merged. After 30 years of service. The ship is being modified since, in order to meet Colombian specifications. The Pohang-class corvette is a class of general purpose corvettes operated by the Republic of Korea Navy. They have served in a coastal defense role during the late Cold War and post Cold War period. A total of 24 Pohang-class vessels were built, all constructed in South Korea. 12 vessels remain in service in the ROKN as of 2020. The first-in-class ship is now a museum in Pohang city.
The primary mission of the corvette is coastal line patrolling. Pohang class is deployed as a main force to monitor defence in the South Korean coast. These ships were equipped to perform anti-submarine, anti-ship and anti-aircraft warfare operations in the littoral environment. As the Pohang-class ships are progressively being phased out of the ROK Navy (being replaced by the new generation Incheon-class frigates, and then eventually by the FFX batch II and FFX batch III), several of the corvettes have been transferred to South Korea’s allies (namely Peru, Vietnam, the Philippines and Egypt). South Korea has also donated Pohang-class corvettes to Egypt, Vietnam, Peru, and the Philippines, as it replaces this veteran class of ships with the newer and more capable FFX frigates.
