Posted on 06/06/2013 2:24:33 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
PICTURES: Why Norway wants the Joint Strike Missile
Remember the fuss that Norway made about not committing to buying Lockheed Martin's F-35 until it got a promise to have Kongsberg's Joint Strike Missile (JSM) integrated for anti-ship and land attack missions? Well, new images released by the nation's defence ministry today provide a hint at why its was so insistent.
The ship-launched Naval Strike Missile from which the JSM is being developed is now operational, following a successful (understatement of the week) firing performed from one of the navy's Skjold-class corvettes; possibly one of the coolest-looking surface vessels out there today.
As the images below show, the weapon's live warhead made a significant mess of the retired Oslo-class frigate which served as its target during the end-to-end test.
The missile struck the ship's main superstructure, as shown clearly in the shot below.
A critical design review for the air-launched JSM will be conducted this summer, with the weapon expected to become operational from around 2020. It is intended to be carried internally by the Royal Norwegian Air Force's future F-35As, or in a less stealthy configuration (which I'd suggest is probably acceptable from a healthy standoff range of about 150nm, or 277km) with up to two under each wing. Exports are also a clear target.
The crew on the ship would not be happy.
That’s pretty cool, but they would make me happier by simply making lots more Nokkelost and shipping it over here sometime soon.
Solid hit...I wonder if they can program it to hit closer to the waterline.
“The crew on the ship would not be happy.”
Understatement of the day.
Comparing the two pics of the ship, “how much” of the ship is missing? From the explosion pic, I’m amazed it didn’t sink. Probably no magazine or fuel onboard; just the missile payload.
It has an imaging infrared seeker and an internal software library of target ships, so you can set it to hit whatever part of a ship that you like.
The hit in the picture would have rendered any ship a complete "mission kill;" it's not really necessary to sink a ship.
You’re probably correct about it only being the payload exploding. That’s a hell of a blast. They’d certainly be dead in the water.
JSMs aren’t going to be very useful against Norway’s real enemy: its “immigrants”.
Tell it to the Japnese and the Crew of the USS Lexington.
Agree. And this is probably the best point that’s going to be made all day, maybe all week.
Lotta debris flying thru the air, too. I didn’t expect that mush of the ship to be remaining in the 2nd pic, after seeing the 1st pic’s blast.
Definitely, though it’s hard to tell how much of the ship is gone.
They shoulda used a JSM Finnish IT Helsinkit.
“mission kill”
I had not even thought of that. Shows how little I know about naval warfare. Thanks for the information.
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