Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace announced on 17 September 2024 that it is building a state-of-the-art missile production facility in the United States to meet global demand, following expansion in Norway and a recently announced missile factory in Australia.
Located near key US Navy facilities, the site of the new factory in James City County, Virginia, will provide additional production capacity, sustainment and in-country technical refresh capabilities for Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missiles (NSMs) and Joint Strike Missiles (JSMs).
“The new missile production facilities in the US, Australia and Norway address the strong and long-term demand for our unique technology and the critical need to strengthen collective defence capabilities,” Kongsberg CEO Geir Håøy was quoted as saying in a company press release. “Kongsberg has a proud history in the US and we are delighted to continue to invest in the country to support American interests while creating jobs locally,” he added.
The decision to locate this new facility in the United States was heavily influenced by the possibility that the US Department of Defense could award a multi-year NSM/JSM procurement contract to Kongsberg.
“The US Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force are important customers for Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile and Joint Strike Missile. Their demand signals gave us the predictability we needed to make this investment in the United States,” said Eirik Lie, president of Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace. “This will allow us to better serve our allies in the US and continue to expand that supply chain locally, building capacity and redundancy for these critical capabilities.”
“Kongsberg is investing in a big way in the US market by making Virginia the US home of our new missile factory, which will entail hiring more than 180 people,” said Heather Armentrout, president and general manager of Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace, Inc: the US subsidiary of Kongsberg. “We will also be investing more than USD 100 million [EUR 89.9 million] into the Commonwealth of Virginia over the next few years, in terms of property, plant and equipment. This is in addition to expansion at our core US production facility in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.”
The new facility in James City County will be equipped to assemble, upgrade and repair both the NSM and JSM. The NSM is an anti-ship missile with what Kongsberg bills as “superior operational performance and high survivability against all enemy defence systems”. The JSM is an air-launched strike missile designed to fulfill complex missions, such as anti-surface warfare (ASuW) and land attack. The JSM is designed to be carried internally by the US Air Force’s F-35A Joint Strike Fighters: a characteristic that preserves the low observability features of the aircraft throughout a strike mission. Kongsberg’s JSM is the only long-range precision strike munition that offers that capability.
Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace Inc has a long-established presence in the US market as the sole provider of remote weapon stations (RWSs) and remote turrets to the US Army and US Marine Corps. All RWSs and remote turrets delivered to US customers are manufactured at Kongsberg’s Johnstown, Pennsylvania, facility and leverage an extensive US supply base. Delivery programmes include the Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) RWS the Commonly Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) for the US Army.
Beyond NSM and JSMs, Kongsberg has also supplied the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) that protects the White House and National Capital Region.