Navy looks to Kongsberg for land- and sea-based fifth-generation precision-strike and anti-ship Naval Strike Missile
WASHINGTON – U.S. Navy air-launched weapons experts are asking the Kongsberg Gruppen Defence and Aerospace segment in Kongsberg, Norway, to build Naval Strike Missile (NSM) systems under terms of a $960.8 million order announced this week.
The NSM has multimode guidance that consists of an imaging infrared seeker, an onboard target database, and navigates by Global Positioning System (GPS), inertial sensors, and terrain-reference systems.
The NSM is a fifth-generation long-range, precision-strike missile that offers strike capability against heavily defended land and sea targets. NSM is a modernized version of the Norwegian Penguin anti-ship missile. With options, the value of this order could increase to $1.1 billion.
Detect, recognize, and discriminate
The NSM can detect, recognize, and discriminate among targets independently, and is designed to strike enemy ships at or near the water line to inflict maximum structural damage. Raytheon is building the NSM in partnership with Kongsberg.
The NSM also is the armament of the RTX Raytheon Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS), which will provide Marine Corps High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) battalions with anti-ship missiles.
In addition to NMESIS, the NSM is to equip the littoral combat ship and FFG(X) future frigate with stand-off surface-to-surface weapons capability.
The NSM also is the basis of the Air Force Joint Strike Missile (JSM), an air-launched missile intended for the Lockheed Martin F-35 jet fighter-bomber for ground-attack missions on high-priority targets.
Air-launched version
JSM has an option for ground strike and a two-way communications line, so that the missile can communicate with its launcher, or with other missiles in the air. This missile will be integrated with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Studies have shown that the F-35 would be able to carry two of these in its internal bays, while four additional missiles could be carried externally.
On this order, Kongsberg will do the work in Kongsberg, Raufoss, and Arendal Norway; Toulouse, France; ‘t Harde, Netherlands; Schrobenhausen, Germany; Northridge, Calif.; Gloucestershire and Camberley, England; Chandler, Ariz.; and other locations, and should be finished by May 2031.
For more information contact Kongsberg Gruppen Defence and Aerospace online at www.kongsberg.com/kda/, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
