Kongsberg Defence Australia has announced their team has achieved a critical production milestone for the LAND 19 Phase 7B program, passing Factory Acceptance Tests of the first two Fire Distribution Centres (FDC) for the National Advanced Surface to Air Missiles Systems (NASAMS).

As part of the program — which sees the FDCs being assembled at the Raytheon Centre for Joint Integration at Mawson Lakes — Kongsberg Defence Australia is supporting Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace and prime contractor Raytheon Australia to deliver the new Short-Range Ground-Based Air Defence capability to the Australian Army.

The NASAMS system will enable the Army to quickly detect, engage and destroy aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missile threats.

The FDC in development is the Air Defence Command, Control, Communications and Computing (C4) system that will manage engagement operations through centralised NASAMS sensors, launchers, missiles and communication systems, making it the most advanced and integrated C4 system ever delivered to the Australian Army.

The accomplishment of this key milestone demonstrates the successful transfer of manufacturing and production technology to Australian industry, providing the technical skills to perform in-country production and sustainability for NASAMS.

Kongsberg Defence Australia and its local suppliers are now manufacturing the remaining FDCs for the rest of the program. FDC1 and FDC2 will be used to conduct NASAMS integration activities with other key sub-systems.

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