The Ministry of Defence has declined to say how many Royal Navy warships will be fully fitted and cleared to deploy the Naval Strike Missile by the end of 2026, citing operational security, despite having previously confirmed the size of the programme and named the ships fitted with the weapon.
The refusal came in a written answer from Defence Minister Luke Pollard to Liberal Democrat MP James MacCleary, who asked for an estimate of how many Type 26 frigates and Type 45 destroyers will be fully fitted and cleared to deploy the missile by the end of the year.
“For reasons of operational security, the Ministry of Defence does not routinely provide detailed forecasts relating to the integration and deployment readiness of specific weapon systems on individual classes of vessel. The Royal Navy continues to progress the integration of the Naval Strike Missile in accordance with approved capability plans,” Pollard said, as quoted in the answer.
The answer is in a bit of a contrast to the department’s earlier openness on the programme. When the purchase was announced in November 2022 as the interim replacement for the retired Harpoon, the MoD stated publicly that eleven Type 23 frigates and Type 45 destroyers would be fitted with the Norwegian-designed weapon, and in June last year Defence Minister Lord Coaker confirmed in a written answer that HMS Somerset, HMS Portland and HMS Richmond were the ships then fitted, with Richmond deploying to the Indo-Pacific with the Carrier Strike Group carrying the system.
The Royal Navy has also publicised each fitting milestone, from Somerset’s first loadout in Norway to the first British firing of the missile at the Andøya range during Exercise Aegir 25.
The fitted force has meanwhile moved backwards as well as forwards, with HMS Richmond among the ships formally retired this week alongside HMS Iron Duke, meaning one of the three vessels publicly confirmed with the system has now left service, and the question of whether her launchers and missiles transfer to another hull is one the answer leaves untouched.
The 400 kilogram missile, in service with Norway, the United States and Poland among others, skims the sea at speeds approaching Mach 1 and can strike ships or land targets at ranges beyond 100 miles, restoring a surface-launched strike capability the fleet lost with Harpoon’s retirement. Integration is being carried out in collaboration with the Norwegian government and Kongsberg, and while the approved capability plans the Minister references remain on foot, the pace at which launchers are reaching ships, and the size of the force able to deploy the weapon at any one time, now sits behind a screen of operational security that parliamentary questions have so far failed to penetrate.
Surely there is enough to go round for every ship now. I recall we bought 11 systems.
Probably none then!
Isn’t HMS Defender supposed to have NSM fitted when she comes out of her refit here in the next month or so?
HMS Richmond got it ahead of CSG 2025, now we’ve just had it confirmed that she’s being retired.
I think we have 11 NSM systems, and 11 escorts now (6 T45, 5 T23). So surely they’ll all be getting it, unless we’re expecting more retirements before they are fitted? Or less likely, one of the new Frigates brought into service? I suppose the fitting rate has been glacial though.
Would make sense if all T45s got them and all T31s
T-26 will have to wait for Stratus – high-end ship gets the high-end weapons