Kongsberg Tests Firing NSM Missile From a Shipping Container
Norwegian defense firm Kongsberg has confirmed a test firing of its Naval Strike Missile (NSM) from a standard 20-foot shipping container, opening a new deployment option for the weapon. Ståle Mortensson, Kongsberg’s vice president of business development strategy for its Missile Division, disclosed the test to Janes at the Land Forces 2026 exhibition in Perth, Australia. Infodefensa reported on Oct. 17 that the four-missile launcher fires through the container’s opening roof.
The container-based launch concept is intended to let forces deploy the NSM covertly on the battlefield, supporting expeditionary operations and land-strike missions. Housed inside what looks like an ordinary shipping container, the system is designed to make detection harder for an adversary. It can also be mounted on vehicles, extending the NSM beyond fixed naval platforms.
The NSM is an advanced cruise missile built to penetrate sophisticated air defenses and strike high-value targets, launchable from both naval and land platforms. It is already in service with a long list of NATO members, including Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, Poland, the United States, Norway and Canada. Australia’s Royal Australian Navy also fields the NSM aboard its Anzac-class frigates and Hobart-class destroyers.
Spain’s case illustrates why the concept matters. Madrid selected the NSM to replace the aging Harpoon missile on its frigates and has purchased launchers that will be produced in Australia. The program for Spain’s F-100 and modernized F-110-class frigates runs through NATO’s support and procurement agency, NSPA; Spain has invested €305 million, and the deal covers 120 Block 1A missiles. First deliveries are planned for 2027.
Spain’s Buques de Acción Marítima (BAM) offer another angle on the container concept’s value. According to Infodefensa, the BAM’s quarterdeck has space for up to three containers of the tested size. The planned weapons fit for two new BAM vessels includes short-range air-defense missiles and counter-drone systems — but not the NSM. The new container approach could make adding NSM capability to these ships feasible without redesigning them.
That flexibility matters for navies with constrained defense budgets. Fitting a permanent vertical launch system to a ship typically requires years of design changes and significant cost, while a modular container launcher can be added to or removed from existing deck space as needed. That gives navies the ability to adjust a vessel’s weapons load to its mission profile — a practical solution for multi-role ships handling varied tasking.
Integration of the NSM with land and undersea platforms is also progressing. Studies are reportedly underway for its use on Spain’s S-80-class submarines and on anti-submarine warfare helicopters, reflecting a broader push to integrate the missile across a multi-platform architecture rather than confining it to surface ships.
The container-launch concept aligns with a wider global trend of using naval-origin missiles for land-based coastal defense and long-range strike. Programs such as the U.S. Army’s Typhon system show NATO navies and armies increasingly sharing missile types across domains. Kongsberg also exports some NSM launchers — built in Australia — to Spain as part of a broader supply chain that includes Poland and Denmark, spreading production capacity across allied countries to reduce dependency on a single facility and support wartime production continuity, a strategy that echoes NATO’s broader push to diversify ammunition supply chains following lessons from the war in Ukraine.
A covert, container-based cruise-missile concept is not entirely new — Russia’s Club-K system introduced a similar idea years ago and was viewed in NATO circles at the time as an asymmetric threat. That Kongsberg, a NATO-allied manufacturer, is now offering a comparable concept for the NSM suggests the idea has shifted from a potential threat to a usable operational option for allied navies.
Sources
– Infodefensa, “Kongsberg ensaya disparo desde contenedor del misil naval NSM, que ha adquirido España y podrían incorporar las BAM,” Ginés Soriano, Oct. 17, 2026, https://www.infodefensa.com/texto-diario/mostrar/6053851/kongsberg-ensaya-disparo-desde-contenedor-misil-naval-nsm-adquirido-espana-podrian-incorporar-bam — primary source for test details, Spain’s NSM program and BAM ship context.
