Hungarian air defense receives advanced NASAMS surface-to-air missile system.

On October 26, 2023, Hungarian Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky announced that Hungary had received the Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), marking a crucial step in modernizing its military assets.
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Hungarian Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky announced that Hungary had received the Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS). (Picture source: Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace)

During a ceremony in Győr at the MH Dánielfy Tibor 205 surface-to-air missile regiment on October 26, Hungarian Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky highlighted the crucial importance of robust ground-based air defense systems for sovereignty and national security. “There is no effective defense of the homeland without well-functioning ground-based air defense systems,” he said, highlighting the system’s role in today’s global security landscape.

This acquisition is part of a process that started in November 2020, when Hungary signed an agreement for the purchase of this defense system, initially developed for the Royal Norwegian Air Force by the Norwegian company Kongsberg and the American company Raytheon. This commitment directly responded to the changing European security landscape, particularly with growing tensions on NATO's eastern borders.

The Minister of Defense also noted that two firing units arrived this year, and an additional 4+1 firing units are expected next year. "Furthermore, all the necessary additional training material is arriving; operational, complete, training, and verification equipment are on the way," he explained.

Kyrre Lohne, Vice President of Kongsberg, a Norwegian defense industrial company, explained during the ceremony that Hungary became the 12th country in the world to entrust the security of its airspace to the NASAMS air defense missile system. Hungary will also become the first NATO member state to possess the AMRAAM-ER extended-range air defense missile.

NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, also known as National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) is a short-to-medium-range distributed and networked ground-based air defense system developed by Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace. (KDA) and Raytheon. The system defends against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), helicopters, cruise missiles, unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), and fixed-wing aircraft firing one of several existing missiles.

NASAMS was the first application of a surface-launched AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile). NASAMS is an upgraded version of the system capable of using Link 16, operational since 2007. As of 2022, NASAMS 3 remained the last upgrade; deployed in 2019, it adds the capability to fire short-range AIM-9X Sidewinder and IRIS-T SLS missiles (25 km (16 mi)) and extended-range AMRAAM-ER missiles (50 km (31 mi), and introduced air-transportable mobile launch missiles NASAMS has proven interoperability with longer range systems such as Patriot.

The NASAMS is one of the most widely used surface-to-air missiles in the world, and its inventories are higher than any other comparable system. As NASAMS uses existing air-to-air missiles such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder, AMRAAM, and AMRAAM-ER, there may be thousands of older missiles in NASA's arsenal. NATO which can be fired from a NASAMS battery without change. The AIM-9X variant includes an internal cooling system, eliminating the need for a nitrogen feed to the launch rail required by older variants of the missile.