Naval Strike Missile

Development

The Naval Strike Missile's initial serial production contract was signed in June 2007. It has been chosen by the Royal Norwegian Navy for its new Fridtjof Nansen class frigates and Skjold class patrol boats. In December 2008 the NSM was selected by the Polish Navy, which ordered total 50 land-based missiles (including 2 for testing) under deals from 2008 and 2011, with delivery planned for 2013–2016.

The final milestone was completed in June 2011 with tests at Point Mugu. On 12 April 2011, the Norwegian Ministry of Defense announced phase 2 of development.

On Wednesday, October 10, 2012, the Royal Norwegian Navy marked history by firing an NSM anti-ship missile for the first time. The vessel in question was the HNoMS Glimt, Skjold class patrol boat.

On Wednesday, June 5, 2013, the Royal Norwegian Navy for the first time test fired an NSM missile carrying a live warhead against a target vessel. The decommissioned Oslo class frigate HNoMS Trondheim was hit and the munition functioned as intended.

In June 2013 Poland completed the Coastal Missile Division equipped with 12 NSM and 23 vehicles on Jelcz chassis (inc. six launchers, two TRS-15C radars, six fire control and three command vehicles). Ultimately, the Coastal Missile Division will be equipped with 12 launchers carrying four missiles each for a total of 48 missiles. In December 2014 Poland ordered a second batch of launchers and missiles to equip a Naval Strike Missile battalion.

In late July 2014, the U.S. Navy confirmed that the NSM would be tested aboard the USS Coronado (LCS-4) Littoral Combat Ship. Although there is no requirement for a missile of the type for the ship classes, the Navy sought to evaluate its capabilities to see if it can expand the LCS' anti-surface warfare role. The test occurred successfully on 24 September 2014, although that does not mean it will be integrated onto the LCS. Kongsberg and Raytheon have teamed to pitch the NSM to equip the LCS as its over-the-horizon anti-ship missile.

During RIMPAC 2014 the frigate Fridtjof Nansen made a successful firing of the NSM during a SINKEX, with the missile impacting and detonating as designed.

In the LIMA exhibition 2015, Malaysia announced that the Naval Strike Missile had won the contract to fulfil the Royal Malaysian Navy's Second Generation Patrol Vessel's anti-ship missile requirement.

In February 2017, the Norwegian government announced that the German Navy will acquire "a significant amount" of Naval Strike Missiles under a deal valued at "more than 10 billion NOK".

Design and features

The state-of-the-art design and use of composite materials is meant to give the missile sophisticated stealth capabilities. The missile will weigh slightly more than 400 kg (880 lb) and have a range of at least 185 km (100 nm). NSM is designed for littoral waters ("brown water") as well as for open sea ("green and blue water") scenarios. The usage of a high strength titanium alloy blast/fragmentation warhead from TDW is in line with the modern lightweight design and features insensitive high-explosive II. Warhead initiation is by a void-sensing Programmable Intelligent Multi-Purpose Fuze designed to optimise effect against hard targets.

Like its Penguin predecessor, NSM is able to fly over and around landmasses, travel in sea skim mode, and then make random manoeuvres in the terminal phase, making it harder to stop by enemy countermeasures. While the Penguin is a yaw-to-turn missile, NSM is based on bank-to-turn flight (see Yaw (flight) and flight control).

The target selection technology provides NSM with a capacity for independent detection, recognition, and discrimination of targets at sea or on the coast. This is possible by the combination of an imaging infrared (IIR) seeker and an onboard target database. NSM is able to navigate by GPS, inertial and terrain reference systems.

After being launched into the air by a solid rocket booster which is jettisoned upon burning out, the missile is propelled to its target in high subsonic speed by a turbojet sustainer engine—leaving the 125 kg multi-purpose blast/fragmentation warhead to do its work, which in case of a ship target means impacting the ship at or near the water line.

An NSM coastal battery consists of 3 Missile Launch Vehicles, 1 Battery Command Vehicle, 3 Combat Command Vehicles, 1 Mobile Communication Center, 1 Mobile Radar Vehicle with TRS-15C radar, 1 Transport/Loading Vehicle, and 1 Mobile Workshop Vehicle. The MLV carries 4 missiles and can be connected to the CCV by optical fiber or radio up to 10 km (6.2 mi) away; up to 6 launchers with 24 missiles can be netted together at once.

Current operators

Future operators

Joint Strike Missile

A multi-role version of the NSM is in development. This missile is called Joint Strike Missile (JSM) and will feature an option for ground strike and a two-way communications line, so that the missile can communicate with the central control room or 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 additional missiles could be carried externally.

According to Kongsberg, this "multi-role NSM" is the only powered anti-ship missile that will fit inside the F-35's internal bays. Lockheed Martin and Kongsberg have signed a joint-marketing agreement for this air-launched version of the NSM, as well as an agreement committing both parties to integrating the JSM on the F-35 platform. The project is funded by Norway and Australia. Kongsberg signed a contract for the first phase of development of the JSM in April, 2009, which is scheduled for completion within 18 months.

Improved features for the Joint Strike Missile include:

The JSM will have multicore computers running Integrity real-time operating system from Green Hills Software.

On 15 July 2014, Kongsberg and Raytheon announced that they had formed a teaming agreement to offer the JSM to the United States Navy for their Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) requirement; Raytheon would produce JSMs for the American market. The Navy plans to begin a competition for the OASuW requirement in 2017, which will likely pit the Kongsberg/Raytheon JSM against the Lockheed Martin Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM).

Kongsberg is studying methods to deploy the JSM from Norway's submarines, and found shaping the missile to fit into the F-35's confined bomb-bay also enabled it to fit in the Mark 41 Vertical Launching System. A VL-JSM could also compete with the Lockheed LRASM for the U.S. Navy's OASuW Increment 2 for a ship-launched anti-ship missile.

Australia expressed interest in buying the JSM in June 2014 to equip their F-35 fighters. The missile has also been pitched to South Korea and Japan, and Kongsberg is expected to attempt to make sales to other countries that have ordered the F-35A. The JSM is expected to become fully operational in 2025. Test flights of the JSM will begin in 2015 aboard an F-16 Falcon. Development is aimed to be completed in 2017 and achievement of initial operational capability (IOC) is expected in 2021 with the release of the F-35's Block 4 software. Fit checks have been performed on the external hardpoints of all F-35 variants, and internally on the F-35A and C-models. Countries that operate other aircraft have expressed interest in the JSM, and fit checks have also been performed on the F-15 Eagle and F/A-18 Hornet, but integration on other platforms will not be conducted without a confirmed customer.

On 15 September 2015 the Australian government signed an agreement to finance the development of a passive radio frequency seeker to complement the existing infrared target seeker.

In November 2015 an F-16 successfully completed live-fire testing of the JSM at the Utah Test and Training Range.