HMAS Sydney has been fitted with the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) in a boost to the lethality of the Navy’s surface fleet. The Chief of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has also confirmed that the Tomahawk cruise missile will enter Australian service this year, Australian Defence Magazine reports.
The Australian Government signed a contract with Kongsberg Defence Australia for the missile system in January 2023, after the government selected the capability for integration in April 2022.
Kongsberg Defence Australia has signed several contracts with Australian suppliers to support introduction of the capability into the Australian fleet, including Aerobond, Axiom Precision Manufacturing, Nupress Group, Marand Precision Engineering, and others.
In imagery released by Defence, showing Sydney underway with HMAS Warramunga and HMNZS Manawanui off Sydney heads, at least one NSM canister is visible in the place behind the primary superstructure normally occupied by four Harpoon missiles.
Speaking in Senate Estimates on 5 June 2024, the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond said that some of the missiles had already been fitted on some of Australia’s Anzac class frigates and Hobart class destroyers.
“This year we have fitted Naval Strike Missile to the fleet, not all vessels, but we have commenced that activity,” VADM Hammond said, without disclosing which ships have been upgraded so far.
“By the end of this year, we’ll go from a legacy fleet in being with a maximum range weapon in the vicinity of 200km to the incorporation of the Tomahawk capability with a maximum range in excess of 2,500km,” he added.
The Hobart class destroyers are expected to be the first Australian warships fitted with Tomahawk, though the RAN is currently undertaking a feasibility study to examine the possibility of fitting them to the six future Hunter class frigates.
Australia’s Virginia class submarines, which are scheduled to enter RAN service in the early 2030s, will also be fitted with Tomahawk.
