Sponsored by Control Solutions LLC.
http://www.controls.com/product-cat/systems/
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09 Apr 15. Raytheon Company and Kongsberg have formed a teaming agreement for the Naval Strike Missile (NSM). The pact represents a second step in the companies’ efforts to offer world-class Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) solutions to the many governments interested in this warfare mission. Raytheon and Kongsberg formed a similar agreement last year to develop the Joint Strike Missile, the air-launched version of the NSM. NSM, in operation today, provides superior strike capability against land and sea targets with a range in excess of 200 kilometers. It is the main weapon for Norway’s new frigates and corvettes, Poland’s land-based coastal defense, and an NSM was successfully test-fired from the U.S. S. Coronado littoral combat ship in September 2014. NSM was also a highlight of the 2014 Rim of the Pacific exercises when it was fired from the Royal Norwegian Navy’s Fridtjof Nansen frigate and scored a direct hit on a target ship.
“Raytheon and Kongsberg have a proud history of consistent partnerships to produce and improve the world’s most trusted weapon systems,” said Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence, Raytheon Missile Systems president. “This agreement enables us to bring a complete suite of solutions to the warfighter for the critical OASuW mission.”
“We are very pleased to be extending our teaming with Raytheon to also include the proven NSM,” said Harald Annestad, Kongsberg Defence Systems president. “Together we will be able to leverage Norway’s investment favorably for all our allies to solve the critical OASuW mission.”
About NSM
* Provides excellent penetration capability against enemy air defense systems
* Features an advanced Imaging Infrared Seeker with Autonomous Target Recognition
* Has high survivability against modern and future air defense systems
* Can fly at extremely low sea-skimming altitude, and has terrain-following flight capability
08 Apr 15. US military views North Korean ICBM as ‘operational.’ Key Points:
* NORAD’s chief said his command views North Korean ICBMs as “operational today”
* The long-range KN-08 missile is not known to have been tested and likely faces significant reliability issues
The US military is operating under the assumption that North Korea is able to miniaturise a nuclear weapon for long-range strike; however, experts believe this is more of a remote and long-term possibility.
“Our assessment is that they have the ability to put a nuclear weapon on a KN-08 and shoot it at the [US] homeland,” Admiral William Gortney, head of North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Northern Command, told reporters at the Pentagon on 7 April. “We assess that it’s operational today,” he said.
Not much is certain about the Hwasong-13 (US designation KN-08) road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It has been shown at least twice during public parades but the six missiles displayed in April 2012 may have been replicas.
“We haven’t seen them test the KN-08 yet and we’re waiting [for them] to do that,” Adm Gortney said. “That’s the way we think, that’s our assessment of the process.”
Adm Gortney said he believed it is “prudent” to take such a risk-adverse approach to judging North Korean capabilities. Elaine Bunn, deputy assistant US secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy, took a similar position but judged that “the reliability of an untested KN-08 is likely to be very low”. She spoke the same day during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Bunn noted that while North Korea has paraded but not tested the KN-08, it has experimented with enough satellite launch vehicle (SLV) technology that it could conceivably develop an ICBM. A recent example is the Unha-3 SLV, which was successfully test launched in December 2012. Although any such ICBM is likely to be unreli