Kongsberg Defence Australia has announced the achievement of a critical milestone for Project LAND 19 Phase 7B, successfully delivering the final Fire Distribution Centre (FDC) for the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile Systems (NASAMS). The final FDC delivery to Raytheon Australia was the last of the major end items provided by KONGSBERG under the project. As part of this project, Kongsberg Defence Australia has supported Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace (KDA) and prime contractor, Raytheon Australia, to deliver the new Short-Range Ground-Based Air Defence capability to the Australian Army. NASAMS is a state-of-the-art weapons system produced by Raytheon Technologies and KONGSBERG that is in service with, or under delivery to, 13 nations. The most recent customer for NASAMS is Ukraine where it is currently deployed.
The system enables the Australian Army to quickly detect, engage, and destroy aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and cruise missile threats. This milestone was recognised by KONGSBERG and Raytheon Australia personnel at a recent event at the Raytheon Australia Centre for Joint Integration in the company of KDA’s Mr Kjetil Myhra, Executive Vice President Defence Systems, and Mr Michael Ward, Managing Director Raytheon Australia. Other attendees included members from 16 Regiment Royal Australian Artillery, Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, Army Headquarters, and local supplier partners REDARC Defence and Space, Daronmont Technologies, Defence Coating Systems, Milspec Manufacturing and Eylex.
“This final delivery marks the end of the NASAMS production activities for Army. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we successfully established the only NASAMS production capability outside of Norway. This was enabled through the dedicated support of KDA and the development of productive relationships with our local suppliers. Together, we have greatly contributed to the delivery of a world-class and combat proven integrated air and missile defence system for Australia. As we have seen in Ukraine, NASAMS has saved countless lives and protected critical infrastructure from endless Russian cruise missile and drone attacks. It makes us proud knowing we are delivering this capability to the Australian Army,” Kongsberg Defence Australia’s General Manager, John Fry said.
John Fry is proud of the collaboration between KONGSBERG, Raytheon Australia, and CEA Technologies on this program, all working closely to deliver a transformational Ground Based Air Defence System to the Australian Army. The NASAMS configuration delivered to Army provides significant opportunity for further growth to address an even greater portion of an evolving threat spectrum.NASAMS (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, also known as Norwegian 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.
