Kongsberg Nets £150m Order For Naval Strike Missile From Denmark

Royal Danish Navy (RDN) frigates will acquire the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) in a deal worth roughly £150 million to manufacturer Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.

As per a press statement from the firm yesterday (Thursday), the NOK 2.1 billion deal has been agreed with the Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO).

The RDN’s Iver Huitfeldt-class frigates will be equipped with the NSM missiles via an accelerated acquisition process in a government-to-government (G2G) sale between DALO and its Norwegian counterpart, the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (FMA).

Eirik Lie, President of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, commented: “We are pleased to welcome Denmark to the group of countries that have selected the NSM, underpinning its position as the anti-ship missile of choice for Nato navies.”

DALO Commanding General Lieutenant General Per Pugholm Olsen added: “The missiles are a state-of-the-art replacement for the Harpoons that have served their purpose in Ukraine, and with this acquisition, we are significantly strengthening the Royal Danish Navy's combat capability in a key area.” 

Denmark joins 13 other countries using the Naval Strike Missile, which is already fitted to ships in the navies of Norway, the U.K., the U.S., Poland, Malaysia, Germany, Romania, Canada, Australia, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Latvia.

At the end of last year HMS Portland became the second of the Royal Navy's eight Type 23 frigates in service to be fitted with the NSM. The frigate was equipped with the new weapon and completed testing at the Norwegian Navy’s Haakonsvern base, near Bergen.

When Kongsberg won the deal to supply the NSM to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in November 2024 the five-year agreement, with a potential total value north of £850 million, represented the largest missile contract in the multinational's history.

The NSM was developed in-house at Kongsberg and was first deployed in 2012 by the Norwegian Navy, which uses the missile as the main weapon on its Navy’s frigates and littoral corvettes.

The missile flies at just under the speed of sound (Mach 1) and has an approximate range of up to 150 miles. It can fly in sea-skimming mode and can manoeuvre over or around land masses. 

• You can read more details about the deal on the Kongsberg website