Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KONGSBERG) has signed an initial contract valued at MNOK 489 with the Commonwealth of Australia for Naval Strike Missile (NSM) capability. The order income is booked in second quarter 2022. On 5 April 2022, the Federal Government announced the accelerated acquisition of the NSM to replace the Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile on the Royal Australian Navy’s ANZAC Class Frigates and HOBART Class Destroyers. Developed in Norway, KONGSBERG’s NSM is a fifth-generation, long-range, precision strike missile designed to defeat heavily protected maritime targets in contested environments.
Øyvind Kolset, Executive Vice President Missile Systems in Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace, stated “Signing this initial contract to commence the acquisition of an Australian NSM capability is a very important milestone. This is a clear demonstration of KONGSBERG’s commitment to the accelerated delivery of NSM to the Royal Australian Navy to meet their requirements,” said Kolset.
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 sjomalsmissil. The English marketing name Naval Strike Missile was adopted later. 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 more than 185 km (115 mi; 100 nmi). NSM is designed for littoral waters (“brown water”) as well as for open sea (“green and blue water”) scenarios.
The Anzac class (also identified as the MEKO 200 ANZ type) is a ship class of ten frigates; eight operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and two operated by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN). The Hobart class is a ship class of three air warfare destroyers (AWDs) built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Planning for ships to replace the Adelaide-class frigates and restore the capability last exhibited by the Perth-class destroyers began by 2000, initially under acquisition project SEA 1400, which was re-designated SEA 4000. Although the designation “Air Warfare Destroyer” is used to describe ships dedicated to the defence of a naval force from aircraft and missile attack,
