Marines participating in Large Scale Exercise 2021 fired a pair of Naval Strike Missiles that traveled more than 100 nautical miles to hit a decommissioned Navy frigate.
Navy and Marine forces teamed up to sink the former USS Ingraham, an Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate, during the live-fire exercise.
Marines from 1st Battalion, 12th Marines carried out the mission on Aug. 15 from the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
The long-range precision strike mission was the first tactical demonstration of the flexibility and lethality of the Marine Corps’ new expeditionary strategy, a key component in the Force Design 2030 modernization plan.
The Raytheon-built missiles were fired from a remote-controlled, mobile Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System launcher — NMESIS for short.
The Marines reported that smoke and flames billowed from the damaged sections of the ship just as the NMESIS’ second missile hit.
Moments after firing, the launcher was driven to a waiting Marine KC-130J on a nearby airfield as would be done during war to escape a counter-attack.
“This scenario is representative of the real-world challenges and missions the Navy and Marine Corps will be facing together in the future,” said Brig. Gen. A. J. Pasagian, commander of Marine Corps Systems Command. “This exercise also provided an opportunity for us to work alongside our service partners to refine Force Design 2030 modernization concepts.”
The next day, the NMESIS was loaded onto a landing craft and transported to the well deck of the USS San Diego in another demonstration of the system’s mobility.
