Royal Australian Navy takes first Arafura OPV for testing
Though the delivery marks progress, the delayed programme was slashed to six vessels in 2024.
The Norwegian government has launched a programme to develop a next-generation naval strike missile in cooperation with Kongsberg and Germany which will be designed to compliment the existing Naval Strike Missile (NSM).
The new missile will be known as SuperSonic Strike Missile (3SM) Tyrfing, a magic sword from Norse mythology, and has been scheduled to be ready in 2035.
Norwegian defence minister Bjørn Arild Gram said: ‘The project will continue to extend [Kongsberg’s] strategically important expertise, so we can continue to develop missiles that are attractive to other NATO countries and close allies.’
The Norwegian government has proposed to initiate and complete the initial design phase of the project, before returning to the Norwegian Parliament with a recommendation to continue the project.
The NSM will be a subsonic, sea-skimming, terrain-following anti-ship and land-attack long-range precision missile designed to strike heavily defended land and sea targets.
Kongsberg has received several recent orders for the NSM in the past 12 months including for Polish coastal defence systems (CDS), the UK Royal Navy’s Darling-class Type 45 destroyers and Romania expected to receive its first CDS with NSMs in 2024.
Though the delivery marks progress, the delayed programme was slashed to six vessels in 2024.
The renamed vessels were part of a modular class originally built for the Italian Navy, but will now serve in the Indonesian fleet.
SCHOTTEL has announced its thrusters will be fitted to both Polish and Portuguese programmes.
The vessels have been a necessity for years, but now Denmark is planning a stronger Arctic presence.
The news of the upgrade comes just a week after UK Royal Navy (RN) vessels escorted a Russian spy ship out of the English Channel.
Previous structural and mechanical issues in the 20-plus year icebreaker might represent challenges for the service.