U.S. Navy Amphibious Warship To Deploy With Anti-Ship Missiles Next Year

The U.S. Navy is looking to integrate the new Naval Strike Missile onto at least one amphibious warfare ship in the coming year. This is part of a larger effort to look at ways to increase the firepower of these types of vessels, which could eventually include the addition of containerized missile launchers.

U.S. Marine Corps Major General Tracy King, the head of the Expeditionary Warfare division within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, gave reporters details about these plans on Jan. 8. 2021. The Navy first announced it would acquire the Norwegian-designed Naval Strike Missile (NSM), which the U.S. military has now also designated the RGM-184, in 2018. The immediate plan, since then, has been to integrate those missiles onto both subclasses of the service's Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), though that process has been moving slowly, as you can read about in this previous War Zone piece. The NSM is also set to be part of the arsenal on the future Constellation class guided missile frigates.