On September 3, 2026, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo reported that local military media stated that South Korea's "Chungnam (Chungnam) class frigate" is among the candidates for new warships that the U.S. Trump administration is considering ordering from overseas.

USNI News, a U.S. Navy-specialized media outlet, reported on the 1st, citing multiple military officials, that "South Korea (Chungnam-class guided-missile frigate), Japan (Mogami-class destroyer escort), and Turkey (Istanbul-class frigate) are competing as candidates for the next-generation frigates that the White House and the U.S. Navy are considering acquiring through overseas orders."

The South Korean Navy's state-of-the-art 3,600-ton Chungnam-class frigate, following the Incheon (Incheon) and Daegu (Daegu) classes, is 129 meters long, 14.8 meters wide, and 38.9 meters high. Its 16 Korean Vertical Launch System (KVLS) cells will carry South Korea's first indigenously developed anti-ship interceptor missile "Haegung (Haegun)", long-range anti-submarine missile (torpedo) "Hong Sang Eo (Hong Sang-eo)", and more. It is also equipped with eight "Haeseong (Haeseong)" anti-ship missiles.

Its biggest feature is that all major detection equipment, such as the combat system, which serves as the vessel's brain and heart, and the radar, which acts as its "eyes," are domestically produced. Three shipbuilding companies, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, SK Oceanplant, and Hanwha Ocean, will build a total of six vessels.

Following reports that a South Korean frigate is among the candidates, attention is also gathering on whether the U.S.-South Korea shipbuilding cooperation program "MASGA (Make American Shipbuilding Great Again)" will accelerate.

Since Hanwha Ocean has already acquired the Philadelphia Shipyard, it is considered highly likely to meet the "conditions" presented by the White House. It is reported that instructions have been issued within the Navy to complete the evaluation of overseas order candidates by November 12.

In response to this article, many cold comments were posted by South Korean netizens, such as: "I think it will be the Mogami," "I wouldn't entrust it to a country with a pro-China, pro-North Korea president, even if I were the U.S. President," "Stop it. It's better to build it yourselves." "U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises have been canceled. If the U.S. military cooperates with Japan, they will probably introduce Japanese destroyers," "Isn't the Chungnam-class insufficient in power?", and "It'll just be another swing and a miss anyway. That's the Republic of Korea." (Translation/Editing: Asa-e)