PORT HUENEME, California – Among the flurry of fleet activities in the recent Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in Hawaii was a milestone that Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD) spearheaded — the first demonstration firing of a Naval Strike Missile (NSM) from a U.S. Navy destroyer.
Working under a compressed timeline, NSWC PHD and its partners installed the first Over-the-Horizon (OTH) Weapon System on a destroyer, USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62), in time for it to launch an NSM at a decommissioned ship on July 18 during RIMPAC.
Other major players in the effort included Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS) 3H, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) China Lake, General Dynamics Mission Systems, and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS.
“This was a high-visibility requirement for the Navy,” said Eric Romero, customer advocate for OTH with NSWC PHD in Port Hueneme, California.
OTH is a long-range surface-to-surface warfare system that launches NSMs, which are anti-ship-guided missiles. The Navy has added the system to about a dozen Independence-variant littoral combat ships over the past five years.