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KONGSBERG StrikeMaster Deploys to Jan Mayen for NATO Arctic Exercise
Confirmed
In Short: KONGSBERG's Australian-designed coastal defence system StrikeMaster has been deployed to the remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen as part of NATO's Operation Atlantic City, enhancing land-based maritime strike capabilities in the High North.
KONGSBERG Australia's managing director, John Fry, highlighted the StrikeMaster's deployability and flexibility during Operation Atlantic City, a NATO exercise involving forces from the US, UK, and Norway around the Norwegian territory of Jan Mayen.
The system, a combination of KONGSBERG's Naval Strike Missile and Thales Australia's Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle, is participating in Arctic Sentry, NATO's enhanced Vigilance Activity for the High North of Europe.
Strikemaster's deployment to Jan Mayen, located 600 kilometers from Iceland, underscores its utility in remote and challenging Arctic environments, contributing to NATO's enhanced security posture in the region.
Following a successful firing in Norway earlier this year, the StrikeMaster demonstrator will remain in Europe for further partner demonstrations, indicating ongoing interest and investment in the system's capabilities.
What's confirmed
What's still developing
- Australian-designed coastal defence system StrikeMaster has been deployed to a remote island in the Arctic Ocean as part of a NATO training exercise.
- The arrival of the platform introduces a vital sea-denial and coastal defense element to the multinational activity, which ran from 26 August to 4 September under NATO’s broader Arctic Sentry enhanced vigilance initiative.
- Its deployment to Jan Mayen —located roughly 1,000 km off mainland Norway and north of the strategic Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) Gap—significantly elevates those trials by testing how the system integrates into expeditionary advanced-base operations, combined fires, and maritime domain awareness under harsh Arctic conditions.
- Conducted concurrently with Exercise Northern Viking 26, Operation Atlantic City allows NATO forces to leverage overlapping maritime surveillance and test whether distributed, high-precision capabilities like the StrikeMaster can be effectively projected and sustained at distance in Europe’s most challenging environments.