Harpoon, NSM demos key for proving LCS can have a ‘long stick’, official says

Key Points

• USS Coronado will demonstrate Boeing’s Harpoon missile while USS Freedomwill demonstrate Kongsberg’s NSM
• The demonstrations will help the USN decide which OTH weapon to incorporate onto its LCS and frigate fleets

Confirming the US Navy’s (USN’s) intent to outfit every Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) – and the future frigates based on them – with a permanently installed over-the-horizon (OTH) missile system, the programme officer overseeing the acquisition noted that two upcoming fleet weapon demonstrations are key to providing the navy with a way forward in mid-range lethality.

“It’s the beginning of how to incorporate OTH on LCSs,” Rear Admiral Brian K Antonio, programme executive officer for LCS at Naval Sea Systems Command, said during an interview at the Washington Navy Yard on 2 May. “Let’s show that LCS is capable of having a ‘long stick’.”

Independence variant USS Coronado (LCS 4), which will participate in the USN’s ‘Rim of the Pacific’ exercise in July before deploying to Singapore later in 2016, is being prepared for the installation of Boeing’s RGM-84D Harpoon Block 1C surface-to-surface guided weapon system.

Similarly, Freedom variant USS Freedom (LCS 1), which is also expected to deploy to Singapore, is being prepared for the installation of Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile (NSM).

The USN is seeking to equip its fleet of LCS and future frigates with an OTH missile system that would complement an arsenal of shipboard weapons, including BAE Systems’ 57 mm Mk 110 gun and Raytheon’s SeaRAM RIM-116B 11-cell launcher (to be installed on both variants; it currently resides only on the Independence variants).

Coronado demonstrated the NSM in 2014, during which the missile was fired from a launcher located on the flight deck.

Kongsberg’s Gary Holst, senior director of business development, naval surface warfare, told IHS Jane’s that the upcoming NSM installation on board Freedom will also be a standalone system.
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