The Royal Navy is expected to bring the Norwegian-designed Naval Strike Missile into service later this year, according to the Ministry of Defence.
In a written answer to Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, defence minister Luke Pollard confirmed that the Naval Strike Missile has been acquired for the Royal Navy’s escort fleet under the Lunna House Agreement. He said the weapon “replaces the Harpoon anti-ship missile, which went out of service in December 2023” and described the new missile as “20 years newer, has greater range, and is far more capable than the system it replaces”.
Pollard noted that the Royal Navy completed its first successful live firing of the missile in September 2025, when Type 23 frigate HMS Somerset launched an NSM during Exercise Aegir off northern Norway. He added that “test firings are now complete and the NSM is expected to enter service later this year”.
The September firing marked the first time a British warship had launched the Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace-designed missile. Conducted at the Andøya range alongside Norwegian and Polish forces, the trial formed part of wider NATO cooperation in the High North. The Ministry of Defence said at the time that the event demonstrated growing interoperability between the UK and Norway in maritime strike capability.
The Naval Strike Missile is a sea-skimming cruise missile designed for both anti-ship and land-attack roles. According to the manufacturer, it has an operational range of more than 200 kilometres, with later variants exceeding 300 kilometres, and uses a combination of inertial navigation, GPS, terrain contour matching and an imaging infrared seeker for terminal guidance. The missile carries a 120 kilogram blast and fragmentation warhead and flies at speeds approaching Mach 0.9.
The UK plans to equip a total of 11 surface combatants with the missile, drawn from the Type 23 frigate and Type 45 destroyer classes. The introduction of NSM follows the retirement of Harpoon, which had provided the Royal Navy’s primary surface-launched anti-ship capability for decades.
In a separate written answer last November, Pollard described the missile as part of a broader effort to enhance fleet lethality. He said the Navy was “undertaking a significant programme to modernise and increase the lethality of the Fleet”, adding that “the introduction of Sea Venom and the Naval Strike Missile are key aspects of this programme”. At the time, he also described NSM as “one of the most advanced missiles in our naval arsenal”.
??? I thought Somerset had been carting it around for months. Why is it not in service yet ?
Possibly not classified as ‘in service’ because there hadn’t been a test firing 🤷🏻♂️
I recall there was a test firing in September. Somerset went to Norway to use their firing range.
Yes there was, it’s mentioned again in the article.
But Somerset had NSM for many months before the test-firing. It was delayed due to issues post-refit with Somerset. That’s the period Geoffi was referring too.
11surface combatants🤔surely by the time this is ready to be fitted how many T23s will be left?
See that’s why they ordered 11 and delivered them so slowly lol
The question that should have been asked is “when will entry into service be completed by, and when will all 11 ships be equipped with it (if different)?”.
Yes, the wording is often poor.
I learned that with my FOIA requests, got to get the wording right so they don’t dodge.
The issue there may be what 11 ships – it will now probably never be put on every one of the remaining 23s but may well go onto the first in class replacements as they come online. So the question would perhaps need to be – when will all 11 sets be installed on a ship? Though even then there’s wriggle room around them being taken off for deep maintenance etc – so all 11 sets may never all be fully installed
It’s doctrinal. 6 AAW destroyers + 5 Type GP frigates.
“test firings”
Note that it is a plural which suggests that a T45 has also done a firing.
It would be unlikely that the CMS integration required more than one missile fired unless something was way off.
None of the 45s have it fitted
HMS Duncan was slated to be first of class.
She is currently in the North Sea [AIS] which could mean she is in transit back from the test firing.
That is actually an unusually definitive announcement.
If she’d had it fitted someone would’ve got a photo
Some people were not very happy about the photos of the Sylver silo with the side panels off.
I am sure there will be official photos released around the test firing.
Also why announce the Somerset test firing when it happened months ago and had already been in official releases.
Something additional happened recently.
Yes I agree the problem is the delay in the DIP all the work happening is being released in drips and drabs only when it has to be… this is bad for internal UK politics as it destroys moral and confidence and is bad for geopoliticals as it reduces the deterrent effect of a big defeat announcement.. we need both, we need to be shoring up internal political unity as well as our own show of force for deterrent purposes.. this is a bad show really if treasury are delaying this it shows a profound level of incompetence around the risks to our country.
May i suggest that if (big if ) a test Firing from a Type 45 had occurred it was from Dragon, not Duncan,as she was in the right area at the right time,and also came out of PIP with the necessary Deck Mounting works completed.
Interesting insight.
Duncan was the T45 publicly named for NSM testing/trails.
lucky we went for an interim solution now that STRATUS has been delayed until the early 2030’s.
The glacial pace these systems are being rolled out at is ridiculous. The MoD and service chiefs keep telling everyone we are at war and they need a boat load of cash and when ever they get it they give it to a very slow working defence contractor.
DSTL is hanging storm shadows of the wings of 50 year old Soviet Bombers and firing asraam and Brimstone’s from trucks all done in a few months. The RN has managed to get three box launchers installed on frigates in three years for an apparently UOR interim capability.
Money to the MIC….their priority.
The efficient way does not maximise snouts in the trough time, and maybe cuts corners on safety with needs must?
I recall in 82 things happened quickly when they had to.
yep, because there was an ongoing conflict. in peace time and this day and age no one is going to sign any thing off unless 100% sure. Haddon-cave Nimrod enquire. Everyone of this forum would be shouting from the roof tops, if something went wrong and killed the people using it or some innocent bystander
If only this was peacetime.
Haddon Cave had a chilling effect on embedding very cautious processes.
Process that cost a lot of money and take a lot of time.
Some of the processes were and are 100% needed as they simply improve reliability and safety very significantly.
The issue is the lack of £££££ to accelerate testing and certification. If £££££ are to be freed up to accelerate then £££££ have to be cut from elsewhere.
Currently with no sign of the 2.2% -> 2.6% uplift becoming £££££ to spend what else is there to do in order to start the long term projects?
Replaced a missile that can sink a large warship with one that can at best put a hole in a large warship
You’re rather over hyping Harpoon
Depends. Advances in explosives means you literally get more bang for your buck as modern explosives are far more efficient than older, e.g.tnt. So even if only c300lb warhead, it’s possibly as effective than older 500lb missile warheads with much older explosives. At least I hope so. Also means, with lighter warheads, the range is increased. Plus there’s better, smarter targeting, able to hit the best spot on the target.
It isn’t so much the changes in explosives chemistry but the ability to shape an explosion by micro timing a series of detonators maybe across separated layers of explosive to create lens effects.
Harpoon was very good at hitting Scandinavian holiday homes.. less so the ship you aimed it at. NSM is a profoundly better missile and sinking a modern warship with good damage control is actually difficult job and unless the sea is against the crew 1 harpoon would be unlikely to do the job.. far better to have a more advanced missile that can guarantee the hit in the engineering space to create a mobility kill, get a mobility kill and the sea will likely take the ship for you.
Good news of course.
But, there’s always a but!
“In service” is classed as, installed on how many vessels? I ask as we had all the geandstanding the other year about being “at pace” and it’s barely moved, like the rest of defence.
Assume the sets for T23 are moved onto T31?
Is this not as such old news dressed up by the MOD to look like they are doing some thing? love to see when all 11 ships get it but bet its years off its a less than honest press release. Talking up some thing when really not a lot going on like every thing else in defence then. Re hashed stuff made to look new to fool the public.
Ah well what story will be re released next by the MOD?
Its a disgrace there are many more Russian ships offshore of the UK and our ships only have an outdated 4.5″ to fire at them. Quite dishonest and dangerously pathetic.
Leftie government commie ships off shore, enough said they can always used bad words as well,
The in service / out of service definitions don’t seem to mean much in this instance. Lancaster still carried Harpoon right up to her decommissioning last month, whilst Richmond was presumably carrying live NSMs throughout CSG25.
I imagine they decommissioned harpoon and just didn’t remove the launchers to save money
One would hope that as the T23s are being flushed down the toilet quickly they will get this on the first 3 T31s ASAP as well.. after all by the time all 11 sets are installed I suspect we will be down to about 3-4 type 23s
Well the next logical step would be a small buy of JSM for the 12x RAF F-35A.
Why just the F35A? The F35B can take JSM, just externally mounted like the Italian navy has done. With it’s standoff capability and stealthy characteristics it shouldn’t impact F35B ops much.
But it looks like UK stand off interim capability is going to be provided by purchasing StormBreaker (GBU-53/B), which can be used secondarily in a maritime role, with 70 mile range and 105lb warhead (vs 260lb for JSM), as a stopgap for F35B until SPEAR-3 becomes available, and possibly for Typhoon ahead of FC/ASW availability.
Does the Lunna House agreement cover lots of Merlins and AW149s ?
I’m assuming the same, which is why they went for 11 )5*xT31+5xT45)
11 sets of 8. Any additional? Are they looking at options to be able to uparm to 4×4 NSM for the T31s, even T45s, and for the T26s, the later for a hi-lo mix with FCASW? 2×4 is better than nothing. Just need the JSM for the P8, F35Bs and Typhoons to finish the picture.
I am guessing that the plan might be that T45 and the T31 GP frigate use all their VLS for AAW missiles and get a cannister launched anti-ship / littoral strike capability. I don’t see T45 getting Stratos. T26 has 48 cells for CAMM family missiles. In addition it has 24 Mk41 for Stratos and maybe an ASROC type weapon.
i’m at a loss, just who does the MoD think we’ll be fighting, because if it’s russia, they will need to put wheels on ships
It’s amazing how the Scandi countries can produce really good equipment and manufacturing on a budget that is far less than the UKs
Nor, Fin,Den, Swe combined ($39bn v $82bn) spend c.50% of the UKs defence budget. Even if you strip out Nuclear, we are not getting anywhere near the value these countries (or France & Italy) are getting.
It’s quite shocking really
world bank data 2024