How Norway Is Building One of the World's Most Lethal Missiles (And It Could End Up on the F-35)
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The Naval Strike Missile is coming soon to America.
Kyle Mizokami [2]
The modern age of the missile at sea was arguably kicked off in October 1967, when the Israeli destroyer Eilat, sailing fourteen miles off the coast of Port Said, was ambushed by a pair of Osa-class guided missile boats. The missile boats launched four missiles, three of which hit the ex–Royal Navy destroyer, sinking her and killing forty-seven sailors.
The sinking of the Eilat was an earthquake in the world of naval warfare, and set off an arms race in the field of antiship missiles. Within ten years all major navies had their own ship-killing missiles, a rivalry that continued until the end of the Cold War. Now, with the Chinese and Russian navies resurgent, many countries (including the United States) are looking to replace their aging antiship missile arsenals with a new, modern design.
One of the newest tactical missile designs around is built by the Norwegian firm Kongsberg. A Russian neighbor with a very long coastline, Norway required a modern missile capable of defending that coastline. The result is the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), a clean-sheet design that Kongsberg describes [3] as “the only fifth generation long range precision strike missile in existence.”
Source URL (retrieved on December 11, 2016):
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-norway-building-one-the-worlds-most-lethal-missiles-it-18696
