[BITList] Norwegian cruise missile

[John Feltham]

Watch this stealthy Norwegian cruise missile punch through a ship



Friday is as good a day as any other for videos of stuff blowing up, and we've got a video showing the final test flight a brand new cruise missile from Norway. Watch closely, because if you're ever on the other end of this thing, it's so stealthy that you'll never see it coming.

Missiles are small to begin with, making them hard to detect, but Norway's new Naval Strike Missile (natively the Nytt Sjomalsmissil, or NSM) kicks that up a notch with "stealth enhanced" design. Unlike most anti-ship missiles, the NSM uses an IR detector instead of radar, ensuring that it won't provide any detectable warning signals to its targets. GPS plus an in-flight data link let the missile make precise maneuvers and shift targets on the fly, and it also has "advanced terminal maneuvers," which means that it pulls some funky moves just before impact to keep from getting shot down at close range.

A derivative of this missile, called the JSM, is being developed for use on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and should be ready by 2016, by which time the Strike Fighter's wings may all have fallen off. Oh well.

This test footage shows the NSM getting launched from a land base, demonstrating its extreme low-altitude sea-skimming technique, flying over an island, and then acquiring and striking a target. Check it out in the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMowaZ3I90o&feature=player_embedded




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