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Will supply 'several hundreds of missiles' per year

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West in race to build its arms production capacity

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Kongsberg mulls new missile plant in US or Australia

By Gwladys Fouche

KONGSBERG, Norway, June 20 (Reuters) - Norwegian defence

manufacturer Kongsberg Gruppen ( NSKFF ) opened a new missile

factory on Thursday to meet surging demand for weapons from

Western countries spooked by Russia's war in Ukraine and China's

modernisation of its armed forces.

NATO allies are racing to increase their own production of

weapons, ammunition and missiles, partly to supply Ukraine but

also to replenish stocks and be able to counter new threats.

The decision to build the plant, nestled among pine-covered

hills outside Kongsberg about 90 km (56 miles) southwest of

Oslo, was taken in 2021, before Russia's full-scale invasion of

Ukraine, when Kongsberg saw increased demand for its missiles.

Some of that demand came from the U.S. Navy, selecting

Kongsberg's Naval Strike Missile (NSM) for its fleet, an

anti-ship missile with a range of 250 km.

"Then Ukraine started, and it wasn't a surprise to us that

the demand increased," Eirik Lie, Kongsberg's head of defence

and aerospace, told Reuters after opening the plant, which will

employ 1,200 people.

More akin to a giant tech lab than a military arsenal, the

facility cost 640 million crowns ($61 million), with the

Norwegian government putting up 200 million crowns and the

European Union 10 million.

In one gleaming-white room straight out of a sci-fi movie,

24 robotic arms hanging from the ceiling will help build the

NSM, and its cousin the Joint Strike Missile (JSM), a cruise

missile for Lockheed Martin's ( LMT ) F35 fighter jets.

The plant will produce "several hundreds of missiles per

year", Lie said, declining to give a specific number. Neither

would he say how much production was expanding by, only that

growth was "exponential".

There is more to come. "We are looking to increase our

production," said Lie. "We are looking at the U.S. and Australia

as alternatives."

Kongsberg declines to say whether its NSM has been donated

to Ukraine by some NATO allies, but Reuters reported in 2023

that the U.S. was working on giving some of its NSMs to Ukraine

to help defeat Russia's naval blockade in the Black Sea.

The NSM is currently used by 14 countries, 11 of which are

in NATO or the EU, said Kongsberg.

($1 = 10.5744 Norwegian crowns)