NASAMS Air Defense System [UPSC Current Affairs]

Norway announced that it will provide two firing units of the Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-air Missile System (NASAMS) to Ukraine to fight against Russia. In this context, what is the NASAMS Air Defense System? How will it affect the Russia-Ukraine war? Read on to know more about this topic for the IAS exam international relations segment.

What is NASAMS Air Defense System?

It is also known as National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS).

• NASAMS is a medium-range ground-based air defence system jointly developed by Raytheon and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, primarily for the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF). 
• The NASAMS air defence system protects against air-to-surface threats posed by aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
• It also protects critical assets and mass-populated areas against air-based threats.
• There are up to three upgrades until present, such as NASAMS 2 and NASAMS 3 which were inducted in 2019.
• NASAMS 2 has been in service since 2007 and uses radars and twelve missile launchers to enable it to identify and destroy enemy targets.
• NASAMS is equipped with radar, infrared sensors and missile canister launchers.
• NASAMS can be easily moved around on a few vehicles and is also known as a very mobile weapons system.
• The NASAMS missile system can engage 72 targets and its primary weapon is AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile).
• NASAMS is equipped with 360° defence capability and is capable of functioning in all weather, day and night mode along with multi-mission launch capability.
• The upgraded NASAMS 3 is fitted with a fire distribution centre (FDC) command-and-control unit which can perform the battle management command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (BMC4I) functions. 
• The upgraded NASAMS 3 has a maximum range of 50 km.
• The latest upgrade NASAMS 3 is equipped with AIM-9 Sidewinder and IRIS-T SLS short-range missiles which give a range of 25km and AMRAAM-ER extended-range missiles which give a range of 50 km.
• NASAMS has been procured by many NATO allies and is currently in service in many countries.

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