Germany’s NOK 3.5 bn JSM Follow-On Cements Five-Nation NATO Stand-Off Strike Base

Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace confirmed on 18 May 2026 that it has signed a follow-on contract worth approximately NOK 3.5 billion for the delivery of further Joint Strike Missiles (JSM) to Germany. The award arrives eleven months after Berlin’s formal selection of JSM in June 2025 and sits inside the wider ~NOK 6.5 bn programme value announced at the time. As with every JSM export to date, the transaction is structured as a government-to-government sale between Norway and Germany, with Forsvarsmateriell, the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA), acting as contract partner [1][2].

“The new order shows the importance of JSM for F-35, where Germany has started building up its readiness level of the missiles,” said Øyvind Kolset, Executive Vice President for the Missiles and Aerostructures division at KONGSBERG [1]. The statement, from the same executive who in June 2025 described JSM as “the natural partner to the F-35” [2], signals the transition from selection to stockpile build-up for the fifth JSM customer nation.

For NATO long-range fires planners, the significance runs well past the Norwegian-German axis. JSM is now the only stealth-shaped, internally-carried air-launched cruise missile fielded across an Atlantic-Pacific F-35 user community, and Kongsberg is the only European prime delivering at scale into the F-35 stand-off magazine. The follow-on contract converts that position from announcement to delivery.

The five-nation customer base

The JSM customer set has reached five nations across three production phases: original development partners (Norway), Pacific early adopters (Japan, Australia), the United States Air Force entry, and the latest European tranche (Germany). All five operate or have ordered the F-35A variant; the only mark that carries JSM internally.

Several observations follow from this table. First, the cadence of Japanese repeat orders, five contracts inside seven years, demonstrates a sustainment-model relationship, not a one-off purchase. Second, the United States went from first lot to second lot inside eighteen months, with the planned 268 rounds across FY24–FY28 representing the largest single-nation magazine on contract. Third, the Australian programme is the only one that bundles a domestic production facility into the procurement structure, anchoring sovereign throughput at RAAF Base Williamtown. Fourth, today’s German follow-on accelerates the Luftwaffe’s movement from announcement to operational stockpile faster than any of the prior four customers managed at the equivalent programme stage.

The new order shows the importance of JSM for F-35, where Germany has started building up its readiness level of the missiles.

Øyvind Kolset, EVP, KONGSBERG Defence & Aerospace

Technical baseline

JSM is a multi-role, air-launched cruise missile developed by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace with the United States company Raytheon as integration partner and producer of selected components. It is derived from the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) and reshaped to fit the F-35A internal weapons bay. Serial production began in 2021 [3].

For Weapons, Ordnance, Munitions and Explosives (WOME) personnel, three baseline characteristics carry forward into safety case work and ammunition handover briefings. The warhead is a dual-effect design optimised for both maritime hull breach and hardened land-attack penetration, with the same physical case re-tasked by fuze-function selection rather than by warhead swap. The 100 kg TNT equivalent blast figure quoted in Janes-derived open-source material should be treated as the open-source ceiling pending verified plate-trial data; the precise PBX (plastic-bonded explosive) formulation and fill mass remain unpublished.

JSM’s hazard classification and compatibility group assignment for transport, storage and explosive licensing are a matter for the receiving nation’s qualified WOME / ammunition technical authority, working from the manufacturer’s safety case and the round-specific data. ISC does not infer that assignment from open source. For Germany specifically, the Bundeswehr WTD 91 / BAAINBw authority will issue the ruling for the Luftwaffe inventory; receiving states do the same in their national systems.

Two design choices give JSM its programme value disproportionate to its physical size. The form factor is dimensioned for the F-35’s internal weapons bay; the airframe carries two JSMs internally on the F-35A and F-35C, preserving the aircraft’s low-observable signature throughout the ingress phase. Four additional rounds can be carried externally on a non-stealth profile. And the imaging infrared terminal seeker with Autonomous Target Recognition allows the missile to discriminate between vessel classes or hardened-target features against a stored target database, supporting the “send-it-and-walk-away” operational concept that stand-off strike planners depend on.

Platform integration: F-35A inside, F-35B outside

JSM is presently integrated, or planned for integration, on a wider platform set than its F-35 origin suggests. The F-35A carries it internally; the F-35C can carry it internally; the F-35B (short take-off/vertical landing variant) cannot, because the lift-fan layout reduces internal-bay volume. F-35B JSM carriage is therefore external-only, with the associated radar cross-section penalty.

Beyond the F-35 family, JSM has flown live from the F-16 (Utah Test and Training Range, November 2015) and the airframe-form factor is consistent with F/A-18E/F and F-15E carriage [3]. Eurofighter Typhoon integration has been studied. Kongsberg has also previously studied a Mark 41 Vertical Launching System (VL-JSM) variant for surface-ship and ground launch, and a submarine torpedo-tube-launched variant (JSM-SL) is on the technical agenda jointly pursued by the Netherlands and Spain following the cancellation of the equivalent NSM-SL development [3].

For NATO operational planners, this matters because it gives JSM a credible second life if and when the F-35 fleet ages out: the missile’s seeker, datalink and warhead can be lifted into ship-launched and submarine-launched variants without restarting development.

Prospective customers: Italy, Belgium, Finland, and the Dutch-Spanish submarine path

Behind the confirmed five-nation customer set sits a queue of declared interest that, if all converted, would expand JSM’s F-35 footprint to nine NATO and partner air arms before the end of the decade.

• Italy: In July 2024 the Italian parliament confirmed the intent to equip the Italian Navy’s 20 F-35Bs with both JSM and the MBDA SPEAR 3 [3]. Carriage will be external given the F-35B constraint. The Italian Navy operates F-35B from the carrier Cavour and the amphibious assault ship Trieste, giving Rome a stand-off strike capability from sea that no other European F-35B operator presently fields.
• Belgium: Defence Minister Theo Francken announced in April 2025 that Belgium would purchase JSM for its F-35 fleet, with the procurement subsequently confirmed in July 2025 as part of the “Ammunition Readiness Plan 2025” [3]. Belgium operates the F-35A, allowing internal carriage.
• Finland: The Finnish Air Force selected the F-35 as its future fighter in December 2021 with JSM identified as part of the weapons package, although, as of mid-2024, no firm round-quantity order had been disclosed [3].
• Netherlands and Spain: The two nations are jointly investigating a torpedo-tube-launched JSM-SL variant for their respective submarine programmes, following the 2021 cancellation of the equivalent NSM-SL development. The Dutch parliament was briefed on the project in 2025 [3]. If realised, this would be the first sub-launched derivative in the JSM family.
• United Kingdom: Not currently a JSM customer. The Royal Air Force and Royal Navy operate F-35B exclusively, which can only carry JSM externally, and the British F-35 weapons roadmap is centred on the MBDA SPEAR 3 (Block 4 integration, now likely early 2030s) and the longer-term STRATUS family (rebranded from the Anglo-French FC/ASW programme in September 2025) [8][13][14]. ISC assesses a UK JSM purchase as unlikely on present trajectory but not impossible if STRATUS slips or if a follow-on F-35A buy is approved.

Is there a European alternative to JSM? MBDA’s answer

Most coverage of today’s Kongsberg announcement treats JSM as a category of one. It is not. The European missile prime MBDA fields and is developing two distinct families that occupy adjacent ground to JSM. Neither is a direct one-for-one substitute today, but they explain why several F-35 nations are pursuing a mixed JSM-plus-MBDA loadout rather than picking one missile.

MBDA SPEAR 3: the lightweight complement

SPEAR 3 (Selective Precision Effects At Range, generation 3) is MBDA’s primary air-to-ground stand-off weapon for the UK F-35B fleet. It is not a heavyweight anti-ship missile in the JSM class. It is a miniature cruise missile optimised for high-density internal carriage and precision effects against a wide target set, sized so that four rounds fit in a single F-35B internal bay (eight rounds across both bays) with room for a Meteor air-to-air missile alongside [13].

SPEAR 3 is best understood as the high-volume complement to a heavy stand-off weapon, not its replacement. Italy’s decision to equip its F-35B fleet with both JSM (for the heavy anti-ship / hardened-target role) and SPEAR 3 (for high-volume precision strike) is the clearest example of the two missiles being treated as complementary rather than competing [3]. The UK has chosen SPEAR 3 alone because the F-35B internal-carriage constraint disfavours JSM externally, and because STRATUS is meant to take the heavyweight role when it enters service.

MBDA STRATUS (ex-FC/ASW): the future European heavyweight

On 10 September 2025 at DSEI UK 2025, UK Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry Luke Pollard and France DGA’s Gaël Diaz De Tuesta jointly unveiled STRATUS as the new name for the Anglo-French Future Cruise and Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) programme, with Italian participation [14]. STRATUS is a programme of two complementary missiles rather than a single round, and the design reference numbers have been retired in favour of the new public branding:

• STRATUS LO (Low Observable), formerly designated TP15. A subsonic, ultra-low-observable, long-range cruise missile optimised for deep strike and land attack against high-value targets. Designed as the European successor to the Storm Shadow / SCALP class.
• STRATUS RS (Rapid Strike), formerly designated RJ10. A supersonic, highly manoeuvrable anti-ship missile. Designed as the European successor to Harpoon and Exocet in the maritime strike role.

STRATUS exited Assessment Phase in 2025 and is entering Full Development. MBDA states more than 750 engineers are working on the programme across the group. It is not yet available, but the European sovereign positioning is explicit: the programme is described by MBDA CEO Eric Béranger as “the result of France, UK and Italy’s strong commitment to develop Europe’s present and future critical capabilities” [14].

Three missiles, three roles

The strategic read is that MBDA is not trying to clone JSM. SPEAR 3 gives operators more rounds per stealthy sortie and a different effects mix. STRATUS gives Europe its own sovereign heavyweight stand-off and anti-ship capability without dependence on Kongsberg or US equivalents. For procurement officers facing the “which missile” question, the answer for the next decade is increasingly “both” rather than “either”, with Italy as the live worked example of mixed JSM-plus-SPEAR-3 carriage on F-35B.

The Bodø–Williamtown–Virginia industrial triangle

The order-book pressure on Kongsberg has produced a deliberate distribution of production capacity across three geographies. The primary line remains in Norway, with assembly in Kongsberg itself. A second line is rising at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales: construction of the missile factory began in April 2025, the facility will assemble both NSM and JSM, and manufacturing of missiles is expected from 2027 [3][4]. A third line is being added in James City County, Virginia, where Kongsberg announced in September 2024 a USD 100 million investment to build a US-based NSM/JSM assembly, upgrade and repair facility employing approximately 180 people. Construction on the Virginia site was scheduled to begin in Q2 2026, with first missile manufacturing in late 2027 and full-rate production by end-2028 [3][9].

Strategically, this triangle gives Kongsberg three resilience properties at once: domestic Norwegian sovereignty over the master line; in-country Australian sustainment that satisfies AUKUS and Pacific allies’ sovereign-magazine arguments; and US-side assembly that simplifies American FMS-equivalent procurement and reduces ITAR friction on US Air Force-bound rounds. None of the four NATO competitor stand-off cruise missiles (US Tomahawk, MBDA SCALP/Storm Shadow, MBDA Taurus, and the developmental STRATUS family) has comparable distributed assembly inside an end-user nation.

Why Germany chose JSM: and what it means for European industrial-base policy

Germany’s selection of JSM in June 2025 displaced an expected purchase of further MBDA Taurus KEPD 350 rounds for the Tornado fleet successor and, more pointedly, foreclosed the option of buying additional Tomahawk-family weapons through US Foreign Military Sales channels for the Luftwaffe F-35A force. The German rationale, drawn from open-source briefings to the Bundestag and from the Hartpunkt and Defence Network reporting that followed [10][11], rests on three factors: F-35A internal carriage (Taurus is external-only on Tornado and not certified for F-35); availability of a missile in serial production rather than late-stage development; and a NATO partner sovereign supply chain that aligns with the European Defence Industrial Strategy emphasis on intra-European weapons sourcing.

From an ISC perspective, the second-order effect is the most important. The German JSM decision now anchors a European, NATO-allied stand-off strike missile inside the largest European F-35 fleet on order. Combined with the Norwegian, Italian and Belgian commitments, JSM positions itself as the de facto European long-range internal-carriage stand-off weapon for the F-35 family; a category that did not previously exist as a procurement reality. For European defence industrial-base planners arguing for missile-supply resilience, that is the substantive change the 18 May 2026 contract represents.

What to watch next

• German delivery cadence. Today’s NOK 3.5 bn tranche should begin to convert into hardware deliveries by 2027–2028 if it tracks the Norwegian and Japanese delivery profiles.
• Australian factory cut-in. RAAF Williamtown is the swing capacity for Pacific demand; a 2027 first-round rollout would relieve the Kongsberg main line.
• Belgian firm contract. The April–July 2025 announcements have not yet produced a publicly-disclosed round quantity.
• Italian carriage path. External F-35B carriage trials should reveal whether Italian-deployed JSM produces a meaningful signature penalty in carrier-strike profiles.
• JSM-SL submarine variant. The Dutch and Spanish parliamentary trail to watch, this would re-open the sub-launched anti-ship cruise missile niche left vacant when NSM-SL was cancelled in 2021.
• UK weapons posture. If FC/ASW slips beyond 2030 and any element of the British F-35 fleet shifts to F-35A, JSM moves from “unlikely” to “procurement candidate”.