The US Marine Corps has fired two Raytheon/Kongsberg Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) during a live-fire ship sinking exercise (SINKEX) off the coast of Hawaii in mid-August.
Conducted as part of the wider Large Scale Exercise 2021, the SINKEX saw a number of US Navy weapons and systems employed against the former Perry class frigate, USS Ingraham, which was decommissioned in 2015.
The NSMs were fired by a USMC’s Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction Systems (NMESIS), a uncrewed system which combines the NSM launcher and a Remotely Operated Ground Unit for Expeditionary (ROGUE) Fires vehicle based on an Oshkosh JLTV. The NMESIS was deployed to Hawaii’s Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands aboard a KC-130J transport, and the two missiles flew more than 100nm (180km) to hit the vessel.
“This was the first time NMESIS has been used from shore to strike a target at sea during an operational exercise,” Raytheon Missiles & Defense vice president of Naval Power, Kim Ernzen said in a release. “NSM is a versatile and effective weapon that delivers lethal, integrated all-domain naval power.”
Other weapons to hit the Ingraham included AGM-84 Harpoon air-to-surface missiles fired by USMC F/A-18C Hornets and a USN P-8A Poseidon, and a Mark 48 ADCAP torpedo and a UGM-84 Harpoon fired from the submarine, USS Chicago.
