Naval Strike Missile integrated on LCS

General Dynamics Mission Systems has integrated a new over-the-horizon missile capability onto the Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the company announced on 26 September.

The integration was carried out in support of a Chief of Naval Operations mandate to increase LCS lethality and survivability.

The addition of the MK 87 Mod 0 over-the-horizon Naval Strike Missile (NSM) on USS Gabrielle Giffords enhances the ship’s mission readiness and defensive capabilities. The NSM is a long-range, precision-strike weapon that can find and destroy targets at distances up to 100 nautical miles.

General Dynamics integrated the NSM system by determining equipment placement, adapting the ship’s navigation system to provide unique signals to the missile system, designing the operational station in the integrated command center, designing the system for providing specialised power to the MK 87 and conducting all of the analyses necessary for a safe and effective system.

Carlo Zaffanella, vice president and general manager of maritime and strategic systems at General Dynamics Mission Systems, said: ‘The open-architecture design of the ship’s computing environment and electronic systems made the design and integration of the new NSM system feasible in an accelerated timeline.’