Norway advances Ukraine's defense with Nasams, new rockets
Norwegians are very satisfied with the effectiveness of the NASAMS system in Ukraine, but the bottleneck is the availability of missiles. They plan to turn to unconventional rockets. Here's what the NASAMS system is and what Norwegians intend to do.
In an interview with the portal Euractiv, Eirik Lie, president of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, stated that his company is working on integrating missiles based on Ukrainian technology with the NASAMS system.
Kongsberg is currently establishing a branch in Ukraine, and ongoing discussions are considering the creation of a joint-venture company in the coming months to produce hundreds of missiles. This likely involves some variations of Ukrainian air-to-air missiles like the Vympel R-73, R-27, or R-77.
These missiles were developed, produced, or serviced to varying degrees by the Artem plant in Kyiv. It's unsurprising that in an era of fighter jet shortages, Ukrainians have begun using R-73 missiles on sea drones or Osa anti-aircraft systems.
The integration of these modified missiles with the high-performing NASAMS systems would significantly reduce Ukraine's dependency on other countries, including the USA, in the long term.
A unique perspective on Norwegian anti-air defense
The NASAMS air defense system, an acronym for Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System, was developed through the cooperation of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace with American RTX, formerly Raytheon. It debuted in the Norwegian armed forces in 1998 and has undergone many upgrades since then, with its second version introduced in 2007. This was not the last, as the currently produced units are the third generation.
The creators aimed to develop an anti-aircraft system with an open architecture capable of using air-to-air missiles typically used in aviation. This approach was intended to simplify logistics compared to systems requiring dedicated missiles.
The result is a system that can be integrated with numerous radars—currently 25 different types—and missiles that must comply with the Mil-Std 1760 aviation standard. This allows air defense units to use aviation arsenals and vice versa.
The openness of the NASAMS system
Modernization of launchers and software updates allow compatibility with new models of missiles, significantly boosting the export success of the system, which is currently used by 16 countries worldwide.
The current configuration of NASAMS includes the use of AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, including the ER extended range version, as well as AIM-9 Sidewinder and IRIS-T missiles. It might be possible to integrate Ukrainian missiles if they gain compatibility with the Mil-Std 1760 rail through, for example, a missile reconstruction process, which is not uncommon.
These missiles would also align with the range capabilities of the NASAMS system, as the range of Ukrainian missiles would likely fall between over 6 miles to perhaps around 19 miles. Their targets would be objects such as drones, helicopters, aircraft, or cruise missiles.
