Impressive Korean navy submarine visits Victoria’s CFB Esquimalt last weekend 

If you spotted something cool in Victoria’s water over the weekend, you weren’t imaging things.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) had two of their impressive navy vessels sail into CFB Esquimalt on Saturday.

On May 24th, the 3,000-ton-class ROK submarine SS-III ROKS Dosan Ahn Chango and the 3,100-ton-class frigate FFG-II ROKS Daejeon made a visit to CFB Esquimalt.

The vessels are set to take part in combined exercises with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) during their stay.

The two-month journey for the submarine was a record-setting one, being the first submarine in ROK Navy history to cross the Pacific Ocean.

The vessel safely navigated around 14,000 kilometres to Victoria, passing through Guam and Hawaii on the trip. The ROKS Dosan Ahn Chango started its journey in the Jinhae Naval Port on March 25th.

Upon arrival at the Esquimalt port, the submarine “manned the rails” for the welcoming committee of Maritime Forces Pacific (MARPAC) Rear-Admiral David Patchell and Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Canada Lim Ki-mo.

Manning the rails is an international naval courtesy which shows respect to another naval ship or senior ashore by having the crew line up along the rails.

Two Canadian submariners—Lieutenant-Commander Brittany Bourgeois and Petty Officer 2nd Class Jake Dixon—from RCN Submarine Force, joined the Korean submarine in Hawaii and participated in the transit and training on the way to CFB Esquimalt.

The two communicated with MARPAC via combined C4I systems during the trip, showing the deep trust and interoperability between the two navies and serving as an opportunity for the ROKN to directly demonstrate to Canada the operational capability and living conditions of ROK submarines, the ROKN press release stated.

“The successful first-ever trans-Pacific sail by the Korean submarine is a remarkable accomplishment that clearly demonstrates the outstanding performance and world-class technology of submarines built by the Republic of Korea that conduct sustained missions even in the harsh ocean environment,” said Captain Lee Byung Il, commanding officer of ROKS Dosan Ahn Changho.

“Having confirmed the strong trust between our navies by working side-by-side with RCN submariners, we will continue to seamlessly execute the missions assigned to us for the remainder of our time in order to deeply engrave the unique excellence of the best existing diesel submarine.”

The RCN held an official welcome ceremony for the vessels on Monday, May 25th.