British Warships to be armed with Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile

The UK Royal Navy will receive the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), outfitted on Type 23 frigates and Type 45 destroyers, in a collaboration with the Norwegian government.

Replacing the Harpoon surface-to-surface weapon, due to go out of service in 2023, the NSM anti-ship missile will be ready for operations onboard the first Royal Navy vessel in a little over 12 months.

KONGSBERG said it cannot provide any further comment on the potential size of this contract.

The Naval Strike Missile is a long-range, precision strike weapon that seeks and destroys enemy ships at distances greater than 100 nautical miles. It uses Inertial, GPS and terrain-reference navigation and imaging infrared homing (with a target database aboard the missile).

The can be launched from a variety of platforms against a variety of targets on sea and land.

The airframe design and the high thrust-to-weight ratio give the NSM good maneuverability. The missile is completely passive and has sea-skimming capabilities and with its advanced terminal maneuvers, it will survive the enemy air defenses. The Autonomous Target Recognition (ATR) of the seeker ensures that the correct target is detected, recognized, and hit, at sea or on land.

TECHNICAL DATA

Speed: 0.7 – 0.9 Mach

Weight: 407 kg

Multi-mission: Sea and land targets

Range: >100 nm or 185 km

Responsive: Rapid automated mission planning – short reaction time