Britain’s Royal Navy has taken a critical decision to boost
its capabilities to take on rival’s surface combatants .
The service is to be equipped with a new long-range precision strike missile in
an agreement announced Nov 22 with the Norwegian Government.
Eleven frigates and destroyers are to be equipped with the Kongsberg
Defence and Aerospace built Naval Strike Missile.
The first three warships are being rapidly modified to accept the weapon with the first
ready for operation in a little over 12 months the U.K. Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace revealed the deal
during a visit of the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to Norway.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how NSM anti ship missile would significantly enhance
Britain’s Royal Navy firepower ? Let’s get started.
Royal Navy has obsolete Harpoon Block IC
Harpoon is an over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile manufactured by Boeing Defence, Space & Security.
Initially developed in the 1970s, it has seen many upgraded over the year.
It can reach targets at a maximum distance
of 80 miles or 130 km and has a subsonic speed of Mach 0.7.
It is relatively outdate and don’t fit into the modern landscape.
Harpoon had been earmarked to go out of service in 2018 but the move was put back to 2023.
Future Cruise and Anti-Ship Weapon (FCASW) which is being seen as the final solution
is expected to be available in 2028 although most believe this timeframe is not realistic.
So, Royal Navy was supposed to be out of an Anti Ship missile for at least 5 years.
The Interim Surface-to-Surface Guided Weapon (I-SSGW) program was originally
initiated in March 2019 – a plan to purchase a small stock of weapons
to replace the Royal Nav’s Harpoon when it went goes out of service.
In late 2021, the then First Sea Lord, said the RN had abandoned I-SSGW as
a “sticking paster” approach in favor of waiting and investing the money in FCASW.
The war in Ukraine seem to have changed the thought
process and I-SSGW program has been resurrected.
The NSM is the upgrade of Kongsberg’s Penguin short-to-medium range anti-ship guided missile.
The state-of-the-art design and use of composite materials are meant to give the
missile sophisticated stealth capabilities. The missile will weigh slightly more than
400 kg or 880 lb and have a range of more than 185 km or 100 nautical miles.
NSM is designed for littoral waters ("brown water") as well as for open sea ("green and blue
water") scenarios. The usage of a high-strength titanium alloy blast/fragmentation warhead from
TDW is in line with the modern lightweight design and features high destructive power.
Warhead initiation is by a void-sensing Programmable
Intelligent Multi-Purpose Fuze designed to optimize effect against hard targets.
Like its Penguin predecessor, NSM is able to fly over and around landmasses,
travel in sea skim mode, and then make random maneuvers in the terminal phase,
making it harder to stop by enemy countermeasures.
The target selection technology provides NSM with a capacity for independent detection,
recognition, and discrimination of targets at sea or on the coast. This is possible by the
combination of an imaging infrared (IIR) seeker and an onboard target database.
NSM is able to navigate by GPS, inertial and terrain reference systems.
After being launched into the air by a solid rocket booster which is jettisoned upon burning
out, the missile is propelled to its target at high subsonic speed by a turbojet sustainer
engine—leaving the 125 kg or 275 lbs multi-purpose blast/fragmentation warhead to do its work,
which in case of a ship target means impacting the ship at or near the waterline.
While developed by Kongsberg and now sold in partnership with Raytheon.
Executive Vice President in Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace Øyvind Kolset said,
“KONGSBERG is very pleased to welcome the Royal Navy as a member of the NSM
User Group. We proudly support the strengthening of defence ties
between our nations by integrating the NSM on the Royal Navy’s vessels”
NSM has been purchased by a host of nation including the US, plugs the gap
between the exit from service of Harpoon and the introduction of a future offensive surface weapon.
The Naval Strike Missile will provide the Royal Navy with long-range strike capabilities against
surface ship and land targets until the introduction of its permanent successor, the
‘future offensive surface weapon’, being developed in a joint deal between the UK and France.
The Royal Navy’s next generation anti-ship missile is scheduled in
service in 2028 onboard Type 26 anti-submarine warfare frigates,
the first three of which are under construction by BAE Systems shipyards.
BAE along with Britain’s other main warship build Babcock, supported by Kongsberg, will be leading
the effort integrating the Norwegian missile to the Type 23 frigates and Type 45 destroyers.
NSM is suitable for stop gap arrangement and can installed in a variety of configuration.
It can be deck-mounted in packs of one, two, three, four, or six launchers. Total
installation weight, including electronics and cabling, is 8,600 lb (3,900 kg) for 4 launchers,
17,000 lb (7,700 kg) for 8 launchers, and 26,000 lb (12,000 kg) for 12 launchers
NSM is formidable weapon and would add the much needed firepower to Royal Navy