Naval Strike Missile

The Naval Strike Missile (NSM) is an anti-ship and land-attack missile developed by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA).

The original Norwegian name was Nytt sjømålsmissil (literally "New sea target missile", indicating that it was the successor of the Penguin missile). The English marketing name Naval Strike Missile was adopted later. According to Kongsberg the NSM/JSM had been selected by Norway, Poland, Malaysia, Germany, the United States, Japan, Romania, Canada, Australia and Spain as of 2022.

The Joint Strike Missile (JSM) is a multi-role air-launched version of the NSM currently in development.

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 Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates and Skjold-class corvettes. In December 2008 the NSM was selected by the Polish Navy, which ordered fifty land-based missiles (including two for testing) in deals made in 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 October 10, 2012, the Royal Norwegian Navy fired an NSM for the first time, from the HNoMS Glimt, a Skjold-class patrol boat. On Wednesday, June 5, 2013, the Royal Norwegian Navy made the first test firing of 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 NSMs and 23 vehicles on Jelcz chassis (including 6 launchers, 2 TRS-15C radars, 6 fire control vehicles, and 3 command vehicles). Ultimately, the Coastal Missile Division will be equipped with 12 launchers carrying 4 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 littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS-4). The test occurred successfully on 24 September 2014. Kongsberg and Raytheon teamed to pitch the NSM to equip the LCS as its over-the-horizon anti-ship missile in 2015. By May 2017, the extended-range Boeing RGM-84 Harpoon and Lockheed Martin AGM-158C LRASM had been withdrawn from the Navy's Over-the-Horizon Weapon System (OTH-WS) competition, leaving the NSM as the only remaining contender. On 31 May 2018, the Navy officially selected the NSM to serve as the LCS' OTH anti-ship weapon. The $14.8 million initial contract award to Raytheon calls for the delivery of Kongsberg-designed "encanistered missiles loaded into launching mechanisms; and a single fire control suite,” and buys about a dozen missiles; the entire contract value could grow to $847.6 million if all contract options are exercised. The Navy plans to deploy the NSM in late 2019. The NSM will be designated as the RGM-184A in US service.

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 Maharaja Lela-class'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".

During RIMPAC 2018, USARPAC fired a Naval Strike Missile from the shore to sink a ship.

In October 2019 the USS Gabrielle Giffords fired off a Naval Strike Missile at a surplus US Navy frigate, USS Ford, which was towed close to Guam, in the Pacific, to act as a target in a SINKEX.



According to Naval News in June 2024 the Arleigh Burke-class Guided Missile Destroyer USS Fitzgerald, and Hobart-class Guided Missile Destroyer HMAS Sydney, were observed in Honolulu with NSM box launchers during RIMPAC 2024.

The NSM is to be used by the U.S. Marine Corps as part of the Navy/Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS), which places an NSM launcher unit on an unmanned JLTV-based mobile launch platform to enable the Marines to fire anti-ship missiles from land.

In June 2023 the Norwegian frigate HNoMS Otto Sverdrup fired off a Naval Strike Missile at a surplus corvette in a SINKEX in the Norwegian Sea.

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 and have a range of more than 185 km. NSM is designed for littoral waters ("brown water") as well as for open sea ("green water 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. 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). In 2016, it was confirmed by the Royal Norwegian Navy that NSM also can attack land targets.

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 TERCOM 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 three missile launch vehicles (MLV), one battery command vehicle (BCV), three combat command vehicles (CCV), one mobile communication center (MCC), one mobile radar vehicle (MRV) with TRS-15C radar, one transport and loading vehicle (TLV), and one mobile workshop vehicle (MWV). Each MLV carries 4 missiles and can be connected to the CCV by optical fiber or radio up to 10 km away; up to 6 launchers with 24 missiles can be netted together at once. When installed on ships, NSMs can be deck-mounted in packs of one, two, three, four, or six launchers. Total installation weight, including electronics and cabling, is 8600 lb for 4 launchers, 17000 lb for 8 launchers, and 26000 lb for 12 launchers.

Current operators

 * Skjold-class corvette
 * Fridtjof Nansen-class frigate
 * Skjold-class corvette
 * Fridtjof Nansen-class frigate


 * Coastal Missile Squadron
 * Coastal Missile Squadron
 * Coastal Missile Squadron


 * Freedom-class littoral combat ship
 * Independence-class littoral combat ship
 * Constellation-class frigate
 * U.S. Marine Corps
 * Constellation-class frigate
 * U.S. Marine Corps


 * (a total of 11 vessels from the Type 23 and Type 45 classes to be equipped)
 * Type 23 frigate
 * Type 45 destroyer
 * Type 45 destroyer


 * Anzac-class frigate
 * Hobart-class destroyer
 * Anzac-class frigate
 * Hobart-class destroyer

Future operators
🇧🇪
 * Anti-Submarine Warfare Frigate
 * Anti-Submarine Warfare Frigate


 * Canadian Surface Combatant
 * Canadian Surface Combatant
 * Canadian Surface Combatant




 * Klewang-class fast attack craft
 * Klewang-class fast attack craft
 * Klewang-class fast attack craft




 * De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate
 * Anti-Submarine Warfare Frigate
 * De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate
 * Anti-Submarine Warfare Frigate


 * Maharaja Lela-class frigate
 * Maharaja Lela-class frigate
 * Maharaja Lela-class frigate


 * (Delivery expected finished Q4 2028)
 * (Delivery expected finished Q4 2028)


 * The first missiles will be received in 2027
 * Álvaro de Bazán-class frigate
 * F110-class frigate
 * F110-class frigate

Potential operators
🇮🇳
 * Indian Navy