The US Navy’s new NSM missile has top-notch stealth skills, and possesses a powerful and accurate attack. This weapon would pose a threat to China’s maritime ambitions.
In the study “Methods to implement the US Navy’s distributed lethality capability”, experts from the China Maritime Research and Design Institute (MARIC) attach great importance to the littoral combat ships (LCS) equipped with modern anti-ship missiles. At the same time, they see this as a potential danger.
The Chinese military began to closely monitor the US Navy’s LCS as it re-deployed Independence-class warships in the western Pacific and South China Sea, after a two-year hiatus.
When redeployed, the Independence-class ships all carry the NSM super-ship anti-ship missile, which is a missile that can destroy targets at sea and on land. The deployment of the LCS warship to the South China Sea represents a change in the US Navy’s strategy in the region. They began to focus on improving the ability to proactively attack, thereby finding a deterrent solution.
With the equipping of anti-ship missiles NSM has helped improve the attack capacity of the US LCS warship. This will be an extremely annoying weapon for the opponent. It is known that this warship can carry all 8 NSM missiles in 2 clusters of 4 launchers, in addition to the Mk 41 vertical launch system, capable of carrying 24 medium-range RIM-162 air defense missiles. ESSM.
It can be seen that a cluster of 8 NSM missiles is installed right on the bow of the ship, right behind the gunboat. This makes firing easier.
The Naval Strike Missile (NSM) is the world’s most accurate 5th generation anti-ship missile.
The Norwegian manufacturer Kongsberg Gruppen spent more than 10 years developing the NSM in the process of developing the NSM to overcome all the shortcomings, thereby producing the most powerful anti-ship missile in the world today. This type of missile is capable of flying with complex trajectories, enough to overcome air defense systems on warships.
The NSM missile is made from a composite material capable of absorbing radar waves, and has four directional wings for stability in flight.
This rocket is 4m long and weighs 400kg. It has a solid-fuel booster rocket system in the launch phase and a JP-10 turbo-fuel engine that helps the rocket reach a maximum speed of 1,110,4km/h.
The missile is equipped with a very modern guidance technology that combines inertial guidance and digital maps through the GPS global positioning system.
The NSM’s sensors and stealth characteristics make it capable of hitting a designated target. The NSM has a programmed detonator and a 125kg fragmentation warhead, with pre-explosion penetration for maximum impact. The range of the NSM anti-ship missile reaches a maximum of about 185km. However, the developer is conducting research to continue to increase the range.
The unique feature of this missile is that its trajectory follows the terrain. According to the developer, “this missile rises and falls according to the terrain, and can perform maneuvers to evade the world’s advanced defensive radar systems.”
NSM possesses the ability to accurately identify each type of target – a crucial trait when it comes to hitting specific targets. Immediately after leaving the launch tube system, the rocket wing was immediately popped out to stabilize the flight path. In the final flight trajectory, the missile locks onto its target with a dual-band passive infrared image sensor that enables target discrimination in cluttered environments.
NSM is the world’s first anti-ship missile equipped with an infrared detector and a dedicated camera capable of distinguishing and identifying the shapes of individual warships.
This is something that even Russia’s Kh-35 anti-ship missile or America’s Harpoon has not been able to do. With high accuracy, strong stealth and complex flight trajectory, NSM is the most difficult anti-ship killer in the world.
NSM is also deployed on 10 frigates and missile boats of the Norwegian navy and will be deployed on 15 Canadian Type 26 frigates, German frigates, and 8 Malaysian Lela-class frigates .
Currently, the US has negotiated with Norway to buy the rights to the NSM missile, thereby moving to mass-equipment to replace the country’s Harpoon missile line.