The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) fires the first Naval Strike Missile from a U.S. destroyer. (US Navy)

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD) was able to conduct the first demonstration firing of a Naval Strike Missile (NSM) from a United States Navy destroyer (USN), the USN confirmed on October 23.

Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS
Fitzgerald
(DDG 62) fired the first NSM on July 18 while the ship was participating in Exercise ‘Rim of the Pacific’ (RIMPAC) 2024, USN officials said.

NSWC PHD and its partners installed the first long-range surface-to-surface warfare Over-The-Horizon (OTH) weapon system on a DDG in time to launch the NSM on a decommissioned ship during the exercise, USN officials said .

The Navy has been looking for ways to increase its firepower by expanding missile payloads and launch options.
For more information about these efforts, see Special Report: Lockheed Martin commercializes containerized launch technology with hypersonic capabilities.

The Navy has installed OTH systems on “approximately a dozen” littoral combat ships (LCSs) in the Independence variant over the past five years, the USN noted. The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations began pushing Navy engineers to install OTH on
Fitzgerald
in time to do the ‘RIMPAC 2024’ demonstration.

Typically, this type of first-class installation takes at least two years, Robert Honeycutt, Alteration Installation Team manager at NSWC PHD’s Virginia Beach Detachment in Virginia, said in a statement.

The system’s main components are the launcher and an operator interface console, USN officials said, adding that the system also needed a navigation adapter to make it compatible with the destroyer.

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