The Norwegian Navy HNoMS Storm (P961) Skjold-class stealth corvette launching a Naval Strike Missile (NSM) against a land target. The Storm corvette launched the NSM against a simulated enemy control center. The target was located right on the coast but the test demonstrates the Norwegian Navy’s new capability to strike land targets (even ones located further inland) with its Skjold-class corvettes thanks to the NSM by Kongsberg.
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 sjømÃ¥lsmissil (New sea target missile; the English marketing name Naval Strike Missile was adopted later. The NSM is the only 5th generation long range precision strike missile in existence today. The missile combines unsurpassed penetration capability due to “low observable” shape, super sea skim, high-G random maneuvers and I3R (intelligent imaging infra red) seeker with Autonomous Target Recognition (ATR) providing programmable hit-point and optimized fuze-setting,
Designed and built by Umoe Mandal, Skjold-class corvettes (shield) are a class of six large, superfast, stealth missile corvettes in service with the Royal Norwegian Navy. While light in displacement (274 tonnes) the Skjold class are armed like a frigate ship, present many stealth features and are capable of high transit speeds. The foredeck was strengthened to accommodate the addition of a 76 mm Otobreda Super Rapid gun. The ship is armed with eight Kongsberg NSM anti-ship missiles. The ship’s short-range surface-to-air missile is the infrared-guided MBDA Mistral in a portable configuration. A twin launcher will be deployed on the deck or on a land site. The missile is armed with a three kilogram warhead and has a target range of four kilometres.
The Skjold-class corvette use 4 gas turbines combined by Renk COGAG gear units built in a lightweight design. The smaller gas turbines rated 2,000 kW turbines are used for cruising speed. For sprint speed a second, larger gas turbine is combined providing a total of 6,000 kW to the waterjet on each shaft line. Two MTU 123 cruise diesel propulsion units used previously at loiter speeds were removed. With a maximum speed of 60 knots (110 km/h), the Skjold-class corvettes were the fastest combat ships afloat at the time of their introduction. While they should be classed as Fast Missile Boats, the Royal Norwegian Navy officially label them as coastal corvettes.
