Kongsberg builds on Penguin success

Norwegian maritime, aerospace and defence electronics firm Kongsberg plans to build on the Australian success of its Penguin anti-ship missile program.
At the Defence + Industry 2003 conference in Canberra in June last year, the bright side of the Super Seasprite helicopter project emerged. Norwegian missile manufacturer Kongsberg was one of the winners in the DMO's inaugural Company ScoreCard Awards for its performance in the $182 million project to deliver the Penguin Mk2 Mod 7 anti-ship missile to the RAN. The missiles were all delivered by 2002, including warheads manufactured locally by ADI Ltd, employing for the first time in Australia an insensitive munitions fill.

The company was one of seven local and overseas companies whose performance, as measured under the Company ScoreCard system, was recognised by the then Under Secretary Defence Materiel, Mick Roche. He said at the time that out of 66 companies and 157 contracts which the DMO examined, only these seven firms fully met the four criteria used to assess companies for the ScoreCard awards.

Although the RAN's Super Seasprites have been delayed by development problems and won't be fully operational until 2005, Kongsberg met all its contractual targets in delivering the aircraft's Penguin missiles and transferring the technology required for ADI to manufacture the warheads.

Kongsberg's Chief Executive Officer, Jan Erik Korrsjoen, visited Australia in November to thank the local team which helped win the award and also to explore further potential business opportunities in this country.

In particular, he told ADM, Kongsberg is looking at the ADF's Battlespace Communications System (Land) project, JP 2072. The company is talking to potential prime systems integrators about likely roles for its trunk switching, VHF and UHF radios and tactical applications software skills.

The company also has longer-term ambitions for its new Naval Strike Missile (NSM). This is currently undergoing test firings in Norway in anticipation of a Royal Norwegian Navy production contract to arm its new Nansen-class frigates and Skjold-class fast patrol boats. Contract negotiations are under way and the production contract could be signed in the first quarter of this year. Once in service with the RNoN, the NSM would be a contender to arm other warships in the future, potentially including the RAN's planned Air Warfare Destroyers.

Further down the track air-launched versions will be developed as well; initially for the RNoN's NH90 helicopter and also, potentially, for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, if Norway selects this aircraft. If the NH90's cousin, the MRH90, is selected by the ADF to replace RAN Sea Kings and, eventually, Seahawks, then NSM would probably be a contender to arm it.

The NSM's great strength is its capability in littoral environments, Korrsjoen told ADM. It is a stealthy, highly manoeuvrable missile weighing in at 350kg which flies at sea-skimming altitudes and high sub-sonic speeds with a range in excess of 150km. It was designed to operate in Norway's complex littoral, which is riven by fjords and mountains; pre-selected navigation way points allow it to fly autonomously around and over landmasses and islands. Its passive Imaging Infra Red seeker is ECM-resistant and employs highly discriminative target identification and recognition techniques for autonomous attack. These qualities make it attractive to navies operating in complex, cluttered littoral environments, the company believes; they also provide the basis for a future land attack capability.

In the near term, however, Kongsberg is focusing on firm opportunities such as JP 2072, Korrsjoen told ADM.

The company's position in this program has been strengthened by several recent export contracts. It has sold its Multi-Protocol Switching system into Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE and Kuwait in the face of fierce competition from long-established US and European rivals. In Kuwait the company sold an entire tactical communications network, which includes an Australian-built ATM switch manufactured for Kongsberg by Longreach in Sydney.

Kongsberg has also sold its range of VHF manpack, vehicle and handheld radios to armies around the world, most recently to Hungary where it defeated bids by Thales, Tadiran, Harris and Rohde & Schwarz to supply the Hungarian Army with a fleet of 10,000 combat net radios.

Sources told ADM that Kongsberg is unlikely to seek prime contractorship on JP2072, preferring instead to work with a Prime Systems Integrator and concentrate on developing hardware and software solutions.

It is also investing heavily in Longreach, which was formerly owned by Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson; network-centric warfare will demand high levels of seamless voice and data connectivity and Kongsberg aims to leverage off the investment already made in Longreach's efficient ATM switching technology.

The company also has its eye on the ADF's Ground-based Air Defence Weapon System (GBADWS) program, JP 117. At the time of writing it wasn't certain whether this would survive the Defence Capability Review intact but if it does, Kongsberg has unique experience in partnership with Raytheon of integrating the latter's AMRAAM missile into a ground-based launcher and fire control system. The two have been partners for many years developing this system and its predecessor, the Norwegian Advanced Hawk (NoAH) air defence system for the Norwegian armed forces.

Kongsberg is actually located in Kongsberg, near Oslo; that's nearly as far from Canberra as you could travel, but that hasn't prevented the company from seeking to sink roots here. Australian Industry Involvement requirements demand strong local partnerships and Kongsberg is keeping an eye open for investment opportunities in the maritime as well as aerospace and C4I sectors, Korrsjoen told ADM.

By Gregor Ferguson, Adelaide