Recently, the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) was observed onboard a Type 23 Frigate. Let’s take a very brief look at this advanced missile system.
Developed by Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA), the NSM can target both maritime and land threats.
The NSM is distinguished by its airframe design and a high thrust-to-weight ratio, granting it superior manoeuvrability. It operates passively and has demonstrated exceptional sea-skimming capabilities and advanced terminal manoeuvres to elude enemy air defences.
A key feature of the NSM is its Autonomous Target Recognition (ATR), which accurately identifies and strikes the intended target, whether at sea or on land.
Technical specifications of the NSM include a high subsonic speed, a weight of 407 kg (897 lbs), a length of 3.96 m (156 inches), and a range of over 185 km (100 nm). The missile was originally named Nytt sjømålsmissil in Norwegian, translating to “New sea target missile”, and was later marketed in English as the Naval Strike Missile.
Incorporating advanced composite materials, the NSM is designed with stealth capabilities in mind. The missile’s lightweight structure is paired with a high strength titanium alloy blast/fragmentation warhead from TDW, containing insensitive high-explosive.
This warhead is activated by a void-sensing Programmable Intelligent Multi-Purpose Fuze, designed to enhance its efficacy against hard targets.
The NSM’s flight characteristics allow it to traverse over landmasses, stay low over the sea, and perform unpredictable manoeuvres in its terminal phase, complicating interception efforts. The missile’s capability to engage both sea and land targets is enhanced by its imaging infrared (IIR) seeker and an onboard target database.
With the UK’s selection of the NSM, it joins several other nations, including Norway, Poland, Malaysia, Germany, the USA, Japan, Romania, Canada, Australia, and Spain, in deploying this missile system.
excellent, harpoon seems to have been around forever it’s still a very good system, and like many things it perhaps could have been kept in service for longer
Harpoon is old slow and not that stealthy. It can no longer be relied apon to get through modern airdefrnces.
So perfect to take out Russian targets then. 🤪
Harpoonski did pretty well taking out the Russian fleet….
Rumour is that it was old RN Harpoon that UK helped them upgrade. But that is just a rumour.
True but that’s essentially firing a missile into a Russian lake during a war to destruction, ROE and worries about hitting neutral ships or cruise ships were not an issue..for the RN the fact harpoon is random as shite was a big problem.
Harpoon was definitely used when the Vasily Bekh, a salvage tug, was destroyed. Who those 2 missiles came from, the UK, US or Denmark will I suspect never be known (the launcher was definitely Danish).
No rumour.
The void sensing bit is useful, Taurus KEPD 350 has a similar fancy void counting fuze.
A brace of these and I suspect the Crimean bridge would finally be toast.
Come on Norway, give some to Ukraine so this war can be finished! 🙂
Taurus does have a slightly more sophisticated fuze than Storm Shadow (although as a missile it has a far larger RCS than Storm Shadow so is less survivable). But for attacking the Crimean Bridge? Doesn’t make the slightest difference. Storm Shadow or Taurus’ penetrator warhead will certainly clear the bridge deck away, making a hole and allowing the main warhead to explode directly underneath the deck. But there are no more ‘voids’ than that. Just the Kerch Strait below. And the main warhead on both, whilst enough to damage the bridge is not enough to destroy it. For that you need specifically to hit the supports….and the best way to do that is to hit them with a 2,000lb LGB, which Ukraine can’t do. This is the standard ‘Western’ way of dropping bridges, and for bridges that size and construction its the only real way. People who have looked at the Crimean Bridge believe that you’d need a minimum of 12 missiles to put it out of action for a substantial period of time. But without hitting the supports it will be repairable.
This NSM upgrade must free up the old RN Harpoons to give to Ukraine or sell on the second hand missile market.
Giving them to Ukraine – maybe. Doubt anyone but the Houthi would be interested 2nd hand. These things have a shelf life & as far as I am aware, they are already past it. Upgrade kits are/were available, but not aware of RN doing so. Harpoon Block II & current Block II+ are still considered viable & its addition of GPS gives a land attack capability that Block I lacks. RAN would be a better place to look to than RN when it comes to Harpoon.
For pretty much all missiles, there is a shelf life for items such as the warhead, fuel and battery. If the missile is powered by a jet engine, the engine has to be reconditioned generally every 10 years. Ramjets even though don’t have any moving parts within the engine, still; ned the fuel pumps to be reconditioned.
The warhead, due to its chemical make up, can become very unstable as they get older. There is no real safe way of disposing of the warhead except igniting it on a range. Some rocket fuels can be recycled, but a lot of the exotic fuels have to be disposed of, through burning them on a range as well.
Just like other machinery the components will age and breakdown over time. It is probably not worth the cost of maintenance.
Secondly, Harpoon is very much out of date now, nearly all near-peer navies have something that has more accurate targeting, a much longer range, and is more difficult to counter.
That would have required purchasing the upgrade kits – but they didn’t. RN has/had Bock 1C missiles with an EOL of sometime in 2023 (various components all have EOL’s, including fuel, warhead etc). Yes, you can keep using them well past that point, but don’t complain if they don’t work when you want them to (or the reverse). Harpoon Block II is 2011’ish & II+ 2015’ish. You can still buy Block II+ from Boeing. Better off giving RN missiles to Ukraine where they would be used sooner rather than later,
I assure you Harpoon is still in service. A sub launched contract has just ended. Now we have started production on cannister launched. This particular contract runs for 2+ years.Word is sub launched will be back within 4 years albeit being a different block.
They just need to get a waggle on and actually get systems on all the 11 allocated escorts.
You wonder why they don’t purchase some additional sets even with FC/ASW around the corner? Maybe up to another 8 for the T26s for atop the hangar as with the RAN and RCN? And if when the T32 comes along there’s stock there.
That assumes T32 actually turns up. Not so sure myself. But can always turn excess NSM into land launched versions as per USMC & a number of states around the Baltic (Australia also looking at it).
I can’t see T32 happening. There is a huge whole in the equipment budget for programs already in development and not enough cash.
Back in November 2022 it was announced that: “It will be fitted to three vessels “at pace”, ready for operations on board the first RN warship in a little over 12 months.” Arguably the program started in 2019, there was just 2+ years of prevaricating, cancelling and restarting.
It ended up fitted to Somerset in about 12 months from Nov 2022, a ship plagued with mechanical defects for months after that. Otherwise although I think the mounting plates have gone onto a couple of ships, no full installations have been completed that I’ve seen.
There’s also been no test firing by the RN, which seems anomalous though maybe given tests by Allies it’s not considered necessary. The Royal Australian Navy at least did a test it when they put it into service this July.
If 2-years to not-fit it to the first 3 is considered “at pace” I dread to think what the rate will be for the rest…
Somerset was to do the test firing, but her mechanical issues prevented these as scheduled.
These clowns don’t understand the concept of pace!
By that I trust you mean the bean counters and Mandarins in Whitehall. they would have the armed forces join the EU. That way they only have to pretend to control the armed forces, much easy to let Brussels do that.
The concept of Pace is well known in MoD
It is of course preceded by the modifier..Snails..
In relation to ottomans post I totally agree with the same old crap statements they make. “At pace”- we are surely world leaders at fancy words that you may as well take as the opposite. The RN ships have always been criminally under armed “fitted for but not with” crap was doing the rounds for years.
Agree just look at our carriers…designed for 4 Phalanx and 4 30mm mounts. What we have are 3 Phalanx. Every othe major carrier has an organic SAM system not the RN/MoD nothing….it is discussing that they cannot spend a relitivel spall amount to protect such a major asset properly.
It’s actually only 3 Phalanx and 0 30mm, places are there for them but never been fitted.
Not sure it was ever intended for 4 Phalanx’s but that would be good in the absence of some 30/40mm mounts. No visible decoy launchers like Ancilia, no anti torpedo decoys yet either. Why is it so difficult? There must be quite a bit of stuff coming off the retiring T23s, to re-use?
A good public school education has always been useful to the forces…until a conflict starts and competent people gradually manage to if slowly bubble to the top.
Only if the public school lot leave anything to get to the top.
How many type 23s have NSM fitted now? HMS Somerset we know of, but what is holding up the process?
Only Somerset so far – Portland is/has been in Norway but not fitted yet AFAIK.