The U.S. Navy has selected the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), offered by Raytheon Co. and Kongsberg Gruppen, to meet its over-the-horizon requirement for littoral combat ships and future frigates.

Developed by Kongsberg, NSM is a long-range precision missile that strikes heavily defended land and sea targets and can defeat enemy defenses up to 100 nautical miles away. Using advanced seeker and target identification technology, the NSM will advance the U.S. Navy’s vision of distributed lethality, ensuring sea control and freedom of the seas.

The missile program is the latest product of a longtime partnership with Norway and its leading defense company, Kongsberg. Adopting a missile that has already been developed enables the U.S. Navy to avoid a long development and validation cycle.

Raytheon will manufacture NSM launchers, missiles and components in the U.S., beginning launcher production at its factory in Louisville, Kentucky. Missile final assembly and test will be conducted at its Tucson, Arizona, facility. The contract will generate business for more than two dozen U.S. suppliers.

The initial contract value is $14.8 million, with options to bring the cumulative value to $847.6 million.

Taylor Lawrence, president of Raytheon's missile systems business, said "Raytheon and Kongsberg are providing the Navy with a proven, off-the-shelf solution that exceeds requirements for the over-the-horizon mission. Because it is operational now, NSM saves the U.S. billions of dollars in development costs and creates new high-tech jobs in this country."

Eirik Lie, president of Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace AS, said, "Raytheon and Kongsberg are celebrating 50 years of cooperation, and the selection of the NSM marks another successful step for our close relationship. We are able to provide the U.S. Navy with the best of two worlds by combining the capability of NSM with Raytheon's proficiency as the world's largest missile maker."