U.S. missile maker Raytheon has finalized a deal to build the Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile and its launcher at its facilities in the U.S. for domestic and international sale, company officials told USNI News on Wednesday.
“Raytheon expects to perform final assembly, integration and test of NSM at the company’s Tucson, Arizona facility. Launchers would be manufactured at Raytheon’s factory in Louisville, Kentucky,” read the statement from Raytheon.
In 2015, Raytheon and Kongsberg announced a teaming agreement to compete the NSM for U.S. programs like the over the horizon missile for the Littoral Combat Ship and the Navy’s Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) Increment 2.
“NSM production in America is the latest evolution of our decades-long relationship with Kongsberg,” Taylor Lawrence, Raytheon Missile Systems president, said in a statement.
The missile has been in service with the Royal Norwegian Navy since 2012 and has a range of 100 nautical miles with a cost of slightly less than the Raytheon Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile (the Navy quotes the price per round of the TLAMs at $569,000 per round in FY 1999 dollars (about $802,000 in 2015, adjusted for inflation).)
The Navy intends to field the OTH missile on LCS by the end of the year and is evaluating several options.
“I’m looking at a number of missiles – not just the Norwegian missile, I’m also looking at Harpoon and several other missiles. What bolts on, and what can I put on a console that has feeds from the combat system?” the service’s director of surface warfare (N96) Rear Adm. Peter Fanta told USNI News in January.
“I’m trying to do that, again, if I can get enough engineering done to allow me to do this, I’m trying to do that this year.”
The Navy test fired a NSM from Independence-class LCS USS Coronado (LCS-4) in 2014.
