
The U.S. Navy littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) launches a Naval Strike Missile (NSM) during exercise “Pacific Griffin” on 2 October 2019. The NSM is a long-range, precision strike weapon that is designed to find and destroy enemy ships. Pacific Griffin is a biennial exercise conducted in the waters near Guam aimed at enhancing combined proficiency at sea while strengthening relationships between the U.S. and Republic of Singapore navies. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kenneth Rodriguez Santiago
Defense News reports, there is no production bottleneck delaying the rapid deployment of large numbers of Naval Strike Missiles (NSM).
“Demand is not an issue. If they suddenly come out and they say we need 200 a year, 300 a year, 500 a year, we can do that,” Schreiber added.
So, should the Navy and Coast Guard see a need to add NSM to Coast Guard vessels, it could be done relatively quickly. NSM is a relatively small cruise missile, 13 feet long and about 900 pounds.
On the other hand, the Navy has been relatively slow to add them to their own vessels, limiting NSM to LCS as they go through regularly scheduled yard periods.
We in the West need to be screwing AShM on to every deck we can. Upgrading our guns to PGM. And getting AShM integrated on to every aircraft we can.
I hear the USAF have figured away to fly JDAM on to a moving target. Could be a game changer.
LRASM has been integrated with B-1 and FA-18s. Serious anti-ship capability.
There is an air launched version of NSM that can be carried internally on F-35 strike aircraft.
Still lots of room for improvement.
My Coast Guard concern is that in the case of a surprise terrorist attack, the Coast Guard will be the first to recognize the threat, but then the US military is out of position and not agile enough to respond in a timely fashion.
I know things are moving. But we are a decade behind where we need to be replacing a capability that we should have never allowed to lapse in the first place.
And yes you are right about the surprise terror attack problem.
We are going to get caught out. When ‘it’ comes it will come from all directions. Messing about with aircraft carriers is all well and good. But it is just one point on the maritime security spectrum.
“The U.S. Navy intends to integrate the OTH WS on the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) variants; guided-missile frigate, FFG(X); and amphibious LPD-class ships. The Marine Corps is also acquiring the NSM to install on the Navy/Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, which places an NSM launcher on an unmanned Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV)-based mobile launch platform.” https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/09/kongsberg-receives-a-new-nsm-order-for-us-navys-oth-ws-program/
UK’s Royal Navy has chosen Naval Strike Missile for their Type 45 destroyersand Type 23 frigates, replacing Harpoon.
https://www.navaltoday.com/2022/11/23/uk-picks-kongsbergs-naval-strike-missile-for-type-23-frigates-type-45-destroyers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_2022-11-25
Royal Netherlands Navy Selects NSM – Naval Strike Missile
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/12/royal-netherlands-navy-selects-nsm-naval-strike-missile/
“The Netherlands thus becomes the 11th customer of the Naval Strike Missile, joining the navies of Norway, Poland, Malaysia, Germany, United States (for both the US Navy and USMC), Romania, Canada, Australia, Spain and the UK.
TECHNICAL DATA
Speed: 0.7 – 0.9 Mach
Weight: 407 kg (897 lbs)
Length: 3,96 m (156 inches)
Multi-mission: Sea and land targets
Range: >100 nm
Responsive: Rapid automated mission planning – short reaction time
“On June 02, 2023, Kongsberg announced the new Naval Strike Missile order from Raytheon for the U.S. Navy’s Over-The-Horizon Weapon System (OTH WS) program worth around $121 million.” https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2023/06/kongsberg-receives-new-nsm-order-for-the-u-s-navy/
In 2021 NSMs cost about $2.2M each so in all probability this is on the order of 50 missiles.