This Marine Corps unit now has a ship-killing missile in its toolkit 

The Marine Corps’ newest formation now has the service’s key weapon in its armory: a ship-killing missile.

The 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii recently announced the unit had received the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS.

The NMESIS serves as a critical weapon for Marines as they have spent recent years restructuring the service to better assist the U.S. Navy in gaining access to maritime territory defended by adversary missiles and warning systems.

“3rd MLR has an enhanced sea denial capability and is positioned at the forefront of strategic transformation,” Lt. Col. Timothy Love, 3rd Littoral Combat Team commander, said in a Nov. 26 release.

The weapon provides coverage for Navy and partner vessels from coastal positions and gives joint forces combined land and sea targeting options, according to Love.

The system combines a joint light tactical vehicle with remote controls and mounts a Naval Strike Missile on the frame, giving users a mobile missile system in a single package. This aligns with the stated role of the Marines: to island hop and destroy enemy ships and targets ahead of U.S. Navy ships arrival.

The NMESIS, which will function as the Corps’ primary ground-launched anti-ship capability, is being field to the service’s littoral regiments as part of its Force Design modernization effort, Maj. Kevin Stephensen, Marine spokesman, previously told Defense News.

The 3rd MLR was the Corps’ first littoral regiment, a new concept that combines a slimmer infantry battalion, improved radar and sensors with a variety of force and reconnaissance packages to assist joint commanders. The Hawaii-based unit emerged in 2021 and since then the service has established another MLR on Okinawa with plans for a third rotational regiment on Guam.

The regiment’s Medium-Range Missile Battery will operate the NMESIS within the regiment’s infantry battalion.

The fire support coordination center within the regiment will integrate the missile along with other kinetic and nonkinetic fires as they conduct maritime dynamic targeting process tasks, a rapid way to identify and hit targets from multiple platforms.

Norwegian defense firm Kongsberg won a five-year, $900 million contract in November from the Navy — the firm’s biggest missile contract ever — to provide the NMESIS and the Naval Strike Missile which the service uses on its littoral combat ships and Constellation-class frigates, Defense News previously reported.

The Marine Corps procured 97 NMESIS in fiscal 2023 and another 24 in fiscal 2024, according to the service’s fiscal 2025 budget request.

Those procurements filled the service’s initial capability needs for the missile. Procurement is on pause for fiscal 2025, Defense News previously reported.