It's been nearly 40 years since the Navy started its relationship with the Harpoon missile, but now the service seems to have eyes for another surface-to-surface anti-ship missile: A younger, more agile Norwegian.
The Navy test-fired the Naval Strike Missile from the littoral combat ship Coronado on Sept. 23, and the brass liked what they saw.
"This demonstration provided us with a tremendous opportunity to see the capabilities of both the ship and the missile, and what we saw today has great potential for LCS and other fleet assets," said Rear Adm. Brian Antonio, head of the littoral combat ship program office, in a statement.
The NSM, manufactured by the Norwegian defense contractor Kongsberg, is already in use in Norway and Poland and promotes itself as the only "fifth generation long range precision strike missile in existence."
There's plenty to admire.
It can skim the seas on its way to a target, maneuver to defeat interceptors, even autonomously pick parts of the ship to strike.
If it performs as advertised, it will nearly double the operational range of the Harpoon outfitted on cruisers and destroyers, which can hit targets at an estimated range of 64 nautical miles. The NSM has an unclassified range beyond 100 nautical miles.
The missile launched off the Coronado's deck and scored a direct hit on a moving target vessel 100 nautical miles away off the Southern California coast, according to Naval Sea Systems Command.
Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden, head of Naval Surface Forces, said he saw potential for the missile in the LCS program.
"We are extremely pleased with the outcome of today's test on board Coronado," Rowden said in a statement. "We view this successful missile test as a possible future war fighting capability for the LCS program."
It's the second time the Navy has seen the missile in action this year. The first time was in April when the Norwegian frigate Fridtjof Nansen sank the amphibious transport dock Ogden with one during the Rim of the Pacific exercise.
The missile is designed to be highly maneuverable and features an autonomous target recognition capability that recognizes ships of a particular class or design, and can even target specific areas of a ship based on its silhouette.
Different versions can be launched by ships, aircraft and ground forces, and the company recently announced it was developing a submarine-launched variant.
It's also stealthy. According to Kongsberg, the missile is a sea-skimmer that relies on passive homing and terminal maneuvering to avoid air defense systems.
Defense contractor Raytheon announced this year at Farnborough International Airshow that it was teaming up with Kongsberg to be the U.S. partner for the missile, making no bones about competing with the venerable Harpoon, which has been the fleet's mainstay surface-to-surface ship-killer since it was introduced in 1977.
Taylor Lawrence, head of Raytheon's missile systems, told reporters at Farnborough that the Navy was looking to increase its standoff range as a result of emerging threats in the Pacific.
"I'd say it [the requirement] is getting more and more increased emphasis, at least in my discussion with leadership in the Navy," Lawrence said, according to Navy Times' sister publication Defense News. "They are looking for alternatives to improve the range performance [compared with], say, the Harpoon."
And while Navy officials are giddy with the prospect of such a powerful weapon in the arsenal, NAVSEA spokesman Dale Eng said there is no requirement for the missile just yet.
Staff writer Christopher P. Cavas contributed to this report.
David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.
