On June 20, 2018 Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS (KONGSBERG) announced that they have entered into contract with the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency worth 220M NOK (around US$27 Million) for a cooperation agreement on the Naval Strike Missile (NSM).

The Norwegian Government announced February 2017 the Strategic Cooperation with Germany for acquisition of new submarines, where Germany intends to acquire NSM for their Navy. Norway and Germany will cooperate in a long-term evolution of the NSM for their vessels. This contract is the first phase in this cooperation and has a duration of one year.

“This contract is an important milestone in a long-term Norwegian-German cooperation on missiles. The NSM is a product of the unique triangle cooperation developed between the defence industry, FFI and the Armed Forces”, says Eirik LIE, President Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS.

In addition to the NSM, Germany and Norway are cooperating on the construction of four Type 212 CD (Common Design) submarines for Norway and two for Germany. A joint contract for the submarines is expected to be signed in 2019 with deliveries starting from the mid-2020s.

This is the second NSM contract publicized by KONGSBERG in June, 2018. On June 1, it was disclosed that the U.S. Navy has selected the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), offered by Raytheon Company and Kongsberg Gruppen (KONGSBERG), to meet its over-the-horizon (OTH) requirement for littoral combat ships and future frigates.  The NSM, which was a joint submission between KONGSBERG and Raytheon, was widely expected to win the competition after its main competitors - Boeing’s extended range Harpoon and Lockheed Martin’s Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile - dropped from contention.

Raytheon and KONGSBERG will manufacture and deliver over-the-horizon weapon systems under a US$14.8 Million contract for offensive missiles loaded into launching mechanisms, and a single fire control suite. The contract includes options, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to US$847.6 Million. Meanwhile on July 12, the U.S. Army successfully launched the NSM and struck the USS Racine (LST-1191) Newport Class tank landing ship (LST) target during a live fire exercise. The test was the first live fire demonstration of the weapon and was executed as a part of the RIMPAC 2018 multi-national exercise.  

Featuring the IIR seeker and inertial/GPS navigation the NSM is a 3.96m long missile able to strike both sea and land targets at a distance of around 100 nautical miles. The sub-sonic missile weighs 407kg and has a combined blast and fragmentation warhead weighing 120kg. The NSM is capable of reaching high subsonic speeds and can approach its targets in sea skim mode.