The Norwegian defense ministry has awarded Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace two contracts worth 1,426 million krone (approx. $169M) for the delivery of a new batch of Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) for the Royal Norwegian Navy’s frigates and corvettes.
The contracts includes maintenance of the existing inventory of missiles to extend their operational timeline and follows one of the largest ever contracts awarded by the defense ministry for the Joint Strike Missile (JSM).
The JSM contract was announced earlier this month and will see Kongsberg deliver the JSM for Norway’s fleet of F-35A Lightning II fighter aircraft.
“The triangular collaboration between Kongsberg, the Norwegian Armed Forces and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) is the key to our ability to develop such advanced and complex systems. We are also very proud to sign a maintenance agreement that will extend the missile’s shelf life, ensuring that the Navy will remain operational with this important capability,” says Øyvind Kolset, executive vice president of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.
The Naval Strike Missile is a fifth-generation missile with a low radar signature for use in sea-to-sea or sea-to-land defense. The missile can go up against well-defended targets with the ability to penetrate the most advanced air defense.
Kongsberg is working with Raytheon on marketing the NSM throughout the world and has secured export successes in Malaysia, Poland and Romania.
The missile is also carried by US Navy ships, while the US Marine Corps is working on the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) Ground-Based Anti-Ship Missile (GBASM) capability that consists of an unmanned JLTV-based mobile launch platform and the NSM. The US Marine Corps is developing the system to provide anti-ship fires from land as part of an integrated naval anti-surface warfare campaign.
