A land-based anti-ship capability developed in Australia through an industrial collaboration between Thales Australia and Kongsberg Defence Australia has taken part in NATO training activities in Northern Europe, reinforcing Allied maritime strike and littoral defense postures in the region. The StrikeMaster Coastal Defence System (CDS) participated in Operation Atlantic City—a component of NATO’s Arctic Sentry enhanced vigilance activity—on the remote Norwegian island of Jan Mayen alongside forces from the United States, United Kingdom, and Norway. During the deployment, the platform demonstrated its operational readiness through a successful test firing of a blast test vehicle (BTV), comprising the booster rocket motor of KONGSBERG’s Naval Strike Missile (NSM), to validate safe launch mechanics from the host vehicle.
Developed to meet long-range precision strike requirements, the StrikeMaster integrates KONGSBERG’s fifth-generation NSM onto a modified twin-pack launcher integrated with Thales Australia’s battle-proven Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle. Designed for both anti-ship and land-attack missions against heavily defended targets, the stealthy NSM is currently fielded or selected by 14 operator nations, including the Royal Australian Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps—which utilizes a similar tactical launcher under the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) program—and Poland’s land-based CDS units. The complete StrikeMaster capability suite features a Fire Control Centre and Missile Re-supply Vehicle, both utilizing the shared 4×4 Bushmaster chassis to maintain operational commonality, tactical cross-country mobility, and force protection across the firing battery.
Following its debut at the Eurosatory defense exhibition in Paris, the platform’s trial deployment to the Arctic highlights a growing global demand for rapidly deployable land-based strike assets to enforce anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) zones in littoral environments. The Successful Jan Mayen deployment serves to de-risk the configuration for potential acquisition programs by confirming the vehicle’s structural and operational suitability as a mobile shore-based launcher. Furthermore, the platform offers full interoperability with standard NSM variants, which require no physical modification whether deployed from naval deck-launchers, heavy tactical trucks, or protected wheeled vehicles.
Sovereign industrial execution for the StrikeMaster program will leverage existing Australian defense infrastructure, with system integration distributed between KONGSBERG’s facilities in Adelaide and Thales’ manufacturing plant in Bendigo. The supply chain model incorporates over 150 domestic suppliers, sustaining approximately 700 local defense sector jobs. Munition assembly will be supported by KONGSBERG’s new missile manufacturing facility currently under construction near Newcastle, New South Wales, which is scheduled to begin delivering domestically produced Naval Strike Missiles starting in 2027.
