DID has updated its article covering the future NETFIRES NLOS-LS “missiles in a box” system, which will play both a land role in the US Army’s future Objective Force and a naval role as one of the key surface attack modules for the USA’s new Littoral Combat Ships. The basic concept of NETFIRES is to develop a family of low cost artillery-like precision attack missiles based upon a vertical launcher design that can be transported anywhere by Hummer, carried in by helicopter, or even dropped off without a vehicle – and fired remotely as needed by soldiers on the ground. Yet the combat implications go far beyond that simple description. The system cannot replace conventional artillery as a cost-effective way of delivering heavy supporting fire; nevertheless, NETFIRES may end up as one of the USA’s most transformational new systems.
Our NETFIRES anchor article adds a $54 million order connected with the system’s naval uses, while detailing the 2 missiles and other systems that make up NETFIRES and explaining how it works.