The Norwegian government has today announced investment plans to strengthen air defense in Norway by ordering new NASAMS air defense systems from Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KONGSBERG). The proposed investments include eight launcher units and four fire control centers for NASAMS, replacing equipment donated to Ukraine earlier this year. The Norwegian authorities also announced plans to buy new missiles for air defense vehicles and three different missiles for NASAMS with various range capabilities. The NASAMS missiles will be ordered directly from the supplier, Raytheon of the US. The investments are subject to Norwegian parliamentary approval, and individual contracts will be announced when they have been concluded.
“NASAMS air defense is the result of the long-standing cooperation between the Norwegian Armed Forces, the authorities, research institutions and private industry, and today’s news from the Government will contribute to the further development of NASAMS. This is an example of the long-term commitments the industry needs to continue to increase production capacity and delivery capabilities. In recent years, KONGSBERG has invested in expanding its own delivery capacity, and at the same time strengthened ties to the many Norwegian and international suppliers that contribute to making NASAMS competitive internationally,” says Eirik Lie, President of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.
NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, also known as the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) is a distributed and networked short- to medium-range ground-based air defense system developed by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA) and Raytheon. The system defends against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), helicopters, cruise missiles, unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), and fixed wing aircraft, firing any of a wide range of existing missiles. NASAMS was the first application of a surface-launched AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile). NASAMS 2 is an upgraded version of the system capable of using Link 16, which has been operational since 2007.
In April 2019, The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) fielded the upgraded NASAMS 3 system. In May 2019, the first live firing tests were conducted. Deployed in 2019, it adds capability to fire AIM-9X Sidewinder, IRIS-T SLS and AMRAAM-ER missiles, and introduces mobile air-liftable launchers. A new short-range ‘Mobile Ground Based Air Defense System’ configuration had been developed for initial deployment with Brigade Nord of the Norwegian Army. Each battery includes six mobile IRIS-T SLS missile launchers mounted on tracked vehicles and three M1152A1 HMMWV-based High Mobility Launcher (HML) for the AIM-120 AMRAAM, which were originally developed for the U.S. Army SLAMRAAM project. They can be air-lifted by C-130 Hercules or C-17 Globemaster.
