This week, Kongsberg Defence Australia (KDAu) and Thales Defence launched the brand new launcher configuration for the confirmed Naval Strike Missile Coastal Defence System – referred to as StrikeMaster – on the LAND FORCES Worldwide Land Defence Exposition. The StrikeMaster is an illustration of nice collaboration and is an ideal instance of Australian Defence Business leaning ahead to supply sensible and significant options for his or her Nationwide defence. The launch of this land-based maritime strike functionality, the StrikeMaster, will present the Australian Defence Forces with larger vital mass and deployable fight energy that aligns with Australia’s defence technique.
The crew is proposing to suit the Bushmaster ‘ute’ with a twin-pack launcher for the 400kg Kongsberg Block 1A Naval Strike Missile (NSM) as a low-risk answer to the Australian Military’s Land 4100 Part 2 land-based anti-ship missile (ASM) requirement. In an unique briefing to DTR concerning the new system, KDAu Basic Supervisor John Fry stated that the brand new launcher configuration for the confirmed NSM Coastal Defence System – referred to as StrikeMaster – was flowed via Military Headquarters late final yr to gauge curiosity within the CONOPS (idea of operations) and its functionality. It’s the way in which the US Marine Corps (USMC) has gone and this Australian configuration permits us to align very a lot with their CONOPS.
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Every NSM on the StrikeMaster launcher comes already built-in into its personal canister or Launch Missile Module (LMM). The missile is saved, transported and fired from the LMM, which is successfully a factory-sealed unit. Reloading a launcher automobile with missiles requires the whole spent LMM to be swapped out with a loaded one. Every loaded LMM weighs roughly 900kg and the full weight of the twin-pack launcher just below 3,000kg. The LMM is an identical for each ship deck launch and automobile launch. An entire NSM Coastal Defence System sub-unit would possible comprise three StrikeMaster missile launcher automobiles, an FDC automobile, missile resupply automobile and an optionally available radar automobile.
The StrikeMaster launcher would additionally carry the benefit of being of a modest dimension that might be readily concealable beneath tree canopies however troublesome to search out, repair and destroy. Land-based ASM techniques just like the NSM Coastal Defence System additionally present the Military with larger vital mass and deployable fight energy that aligns with Australia’s maturing defence technique for the Indo-Pacific and the idea of joint operations. In contrast to the USMC NMESIS (Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System) that makes use of an unmanned Joint Mild Tactical Automobile with the cab eliminated to be able to accommodate the NSM launch canisters, the StrikeMaster launcher retains the Bushmaster’s two-man cab that accommodates the motive force and automobile commander.
