MH-60S landing on the flight deck of
Dokdo. The LPX is an amphibious warfare ship with a
well deck to accommodate
amphibious assault vehicles (AAVs) and two LCACs, the first of which (LSF 631) was acquired in April 2007. The ship is 199 meters (652 ft 11 in) long, 31 meters (101 ft 8 in) wide, with a 14,000-ton (empty) or 18,000-ton (full)
displacement, and was built incorporating stealth technologies. As a high-speed amphibious ship, the LPX was based on the concept of "over-the-horizon assault." The idea comprises a military operation in which an amphibious landing is conducted with high-speed air-cushioned vehicles and helicopters from beyond the horizon, where the enemy cannot easily detect or attack them. The conventional
landing ship tank (LST) has to approach the coastline for landing, at the risk of being fired upon by the enemy. The LPX has a carrying limit of 720 marines and 300-plus crew members, ten tanks, ten trucks, 7 AAVs, three field artillery pieces, and two LCAC hovercraft. It can also carry ten helicopters when no ground vehicles are on its hangar deck. The flight surface is also sprayed with
urethane, which can support
VTOL aircraft.
South Korea is considering the purchase of
F-35B fighters to operate from its
Dokdo-class ships. Currently, the LPX operates mainly
UH-1H and
UH-60P. However, both are designed for land‐based operations and lack abilities for ship-borne operations, such as protection against damage from salty breezes, making them challenging to operate on-board continuously. The KUH-Amphibious, the sea-based amphibious variant of the
KAI Surion, is now under development. Production is planned to commence in late 2015, with some 40 helicopters planned. Self-defense armament includes the
RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile system. The
Goalkeeper close-in weapon system (CIWS) was purchased in January 2003 from
Thales at a pre-set price of 13,000,000,000 won (roughly $15,000,000). The second ship of the class,
Marado, was built with some changes compared to
Dokdo. The flight deck is adapted to accommodate two
V-22 Ospreys, while
Dokdo could only carry one. In place of the Thales SMART-L multibeam radar and MW08 surveillance radar,
Marado uses the
Elta Systems EL/M-2248 MF-STAR multifunction surveillance radar and
LIG Nex1 SPS-550K 3-D air and surface surveillance radar. It also has a different weapons suite than the 30 mm Goalkeeper and RAM, instead using two 20 mm
Phalanx CIWS and having a
K-VLS at the rear of the superstructure for the locally developed
K-SAAM.
Dokdo is similar in size to the
light aircraft carriers derived from the
Sea Control Ship, such as the
Spanish Navy's former aircraft carrier and the
Royal Thai Navy's . ==Ships in the class==