Norway’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced its forthcoming collaboration with Raytheon and Kongsberg to enhance the “mobility and operational flexibility” of the Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS). 

NASAMS is a medium-range air defence system designed and manufactured in tandem by Raytheon and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace. This new joint arrangement with Norway’s MoD, announced on 31 October, will increase NASAMS' capacity to keep up with a changing threat landscape, drawing on considerable investment from all three sides.

A complete NASAMS includes a group of vehicles supplying different elements of air defence, including radar platforms, a fire distribution centre and multiple vehicles carrying canister launchers. 

Since the system entered service in 1995, a wide variety of vehicles have been used to transport the components, often mounting the fire distribution centre in a AM General 4×4 HMMWV Humvee. Launchers can be carried on a Norsk Scania Vabis P133H truck, and then deposited in their launch site using a hydraulic crane. The NASAMS II was introduced in 2007, followed by the NASAMS-3 in 2019. 

Norway’s Minister of Defence, Bjørn Arild Gram, said the project intends to improve available air defences for military and civilian targets, highlighting the crucial role air defences have played in the defence of Ukraine from Russian airborne threats since the full-scale invasion began.

“We look forward to continuing the successful three-way collaboration between Kongsberg, Raytheon and the Norwegian MoD to further improve NASAMS with the mobility and operational flexibility required to protect people and critical assets in the future,” said Kjetil Reiten Myhra, executive vice-president of integrated defence systems at Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.