How its “smart” seeker picks the right target and evades decoys #militaryweapons

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Can a missile hide in plain sight, fly just above the waves, and think for itself? Welcome to the story of the Naval Strike Missile. [music] This sleek Norwegian-American weapon is reshaping how navies defend the seas. For decades, large supersonic missiles dominated naval warfare, but the NSM took a different path. It was designed to be silent, smart, and nearly invisible to radar. Developed by Kongsberg and Raytheon, it represents a giant leap in stealth technology. Speed isn't its secret weapon. Its true power lies in intelligence. Its shape deflects radar waves, and its shielded exhaust hides it from heat-seeking sensors, making it a ghost to enemy defenses. The NSM skims just feet above the ocean surface, using the curvature of the earth to stay hidden from ship-based radars. It uses an imaging infrared seeker camera that sees heat to compare targets to an onboard library of ship profiles. It can identify specific ships, avoid decoys, and even decide the best impact point to cause maximum damage. The NSM is also a dual-purpose weapon. It can fly inland, using terrain referencing to hit land targets like bunkers with precision.

[00:01:12]Compact and lightweight, it fits on small warships, coastal defense trucks, and even advanced fighter jets like the F-35. In 2018, the US Navy and Marine Corps adopted the NSM to give small agile ships a punch far above their weight class. Nations like Poland, Australia, and Germany have also chosen the NSM, making it a global guardian of international waters. It's not the biggest missile in the ocean, but it is one of the most cunning, a modern marvel of defense engineering. Remember the little missile that hides above the waves and never misses its mark? That is the Naval Strike Missile.