Marines Successfully Fire New NMESIS Anti-Ship Weapon During Live Exercise - Breaking Defense

The Marine Corps this week announced it successfully tested its new anti-ship missile system during the Navy’s Large Scale Exercise 2021, successfully hitting a decommissioned vessel off the coast of Kauai in Hawaii.

The Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, more cleverly known as NMESIS, is a ground-based, anti-ship capability that was developed quickly over the past two years by combining elements of other programs of record, such as the chassis of the Joint Lightweight Tactical Vehicle and the fire control system from the Naval Strike Missile. In essence, it’ll be a remotely operated ground vehicle capable of engaging enemy ships at sea from the coast.

Large Scale Exercise 2021 is the Navy’s wide-ranging operational exercise being conducting this summer to test out its newest operational concepts, including the Marine Corps’ expeditionary advanced base operations concept.

In Hawaii, the service twice fired and successfully hit a decommissioned ship with NMESIS, as well as practiced loading and unloading the system aboard C-130 aircraft and Landing Craft Air Cushions, Joe McPherson, program manager for long range fires at Marine Corps Systems Command, told reporters during a Tuesday roundtable. The events were executed by Marines from Marine Corps Forces Pacific.