Photo courtesy of Yonhap News

 

[Alpha Biz= Ellie Kim] HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has filed an appeal after a court rejected its injunction request to block the disclosure of key design data for the Korea Destroyer Next Generation (KDDX) program to rival Hanwha Ocean.

According to legal sources on May 15, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries submitted an appeal to the Seoul Central District Court challenging the earlier decision to dismiss its request for a preliminary injunction.

The KDDX program is a KRW 7.8 trillion project to build six 6,000-ton next-generation destroyers, marking the first domestically developed warship integrating both hull and Aegis-class combat systems using Korean technology.

Under the original plan, Hanwha Ocean was responsible for the conceptual design, while HD Hyundai Heavy Industries carried out the basic design. Typically, the company that performs the basic design is favored to secure the lead ship contract. However, the project structure shifted after a controversy involving HD Hyundai Heavy Industries employees, who were convicted of illegally photographing and leaking Hanwha Ocean’s conceptual design data.

In response, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration decided in December last year to select the contractor through a competitive bidding process.

As part of the process, the agency plans to distribute the request for proposal (RFP), including basic design materials, to both companies. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries argued that the RFP contains its trade secrets and should not be shared with Hanwha Ocean, but the court rejected the claim on May 8, prompting the latest appeal.

 

 

 

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