Romania acquires coastal batteries capable of naval strikes

Romania will acquire mobile coastal anti-ship missile batteries from American aerospace and defense company Raytheon to defend its Black Sea coastline. The company was awarded the USD 208 million contract by the Pentagon.

Raytheon and Norwegian company Kongsberg will provide Romania with an unspecified number of Naval Strike Missile Coastal Defense Systems. The overall value of the deal is estimated at around USD 217 million, according to a Pentagon announcement cited by the US Naval Institute. The arms will be manufactured at Raytheon’s facility in Tucson, Arizona, and Norway, and will be completed in 2028.

Romania has a 160-kilometer coastline to the Black Sea, where the Russian navy is active. According to a 2021 report from Norwegian engineering magazine Teknisk Ukeblad, the deal would pay for two coastal defense systems that would amount to four mobile launchers and two command and control nodes for the batteries.

The batteries are capable of targeting small and light ships made of Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastics (GFRP) and large naval combatants like destroyers and frigates and ships with thick hulls like icebreakers.

The U.S. and Romania signed a foreign military sales agreement in 2021 to acquire the Naval Strike Missile Coastal Defense System. In addition to Norway and the U.S., Poland currently uses the NSM as well. Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, and Germany also plan to use the missiles.

Initially developed for the Royal Norwegian Navy, the NSM anti-ship missile has a range of more than 100 nautical miles.

(Photo source: Kongsberg website)