Nammo, short for Nordic Ammunition Company, is a Norwegian/Finnish aerospace and defence group specialized in production of ammunition,

rocket engine A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accorda ...

s and space applications. The company has subsidiaries in Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and Canada. The company is owned 50/50 by the Norwegian government (represented by the

Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry (Norwegian: Nærings- og handelsdepartementet) was a Norwegian ministry responsible for business, trade and industry. On 1 January 2014 it was merged into Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. ...

) and the Finnish defence company Patria. The company has its

headquarter Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

s in Raufoss, Norway. The company has five business units: Small Caliber Division, Medium & Large Caliber Division, Missile Products Division, Demil Division and Nammo Defense Systems.

History

Nammo was founded in 1998 by

Raufoss Raufoss is the administrative centre of Vestre Toten Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located about south of the larger town of Gjøvik. The village area is located along the municipal border with the neighboring Gjøvi ...

(Norway), Patria (Finland), and Celsius (Sweden). The

Lapua Lapua (; sv, Lappo) is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located next to the Lapua River in the region of South Ostrobothnia. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The mun ...

cartridge factory in Finland is also part of the Nammo group as Nammo Lapua Oy. In 2005, the present joint ownership between Patria and the Norwegian government was established. In 2007, Nammo acquired the US munitions company, Talley, Inc. after purchasing 100% of its shares. In 2009, it was revealed that the

Israeli Defense Forces Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli (b ...

purchased 28,000 M72 LAWs from Nammo Talley, along with weapons parts and training missiles valued at NOK 600 million. These munitions were later used in

Operation Cast Lead Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

. According to Nammo Raufoss administrative director, Lars Harald Lied, the company also produces 12.7mm "multi-purpose" ammunition that was used by both American and Norwegian soldiers in the

War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see al ...

, often in contravention of

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

. In addition to alleged international law violations, the company has also caused controversy in Norway, where laws prohibit Norwegian companies from selling munitions for conflict purposes. Nammo information director, Sissel Solum, alleges that Nammo bears no responsibility for the use of their munitions after purchase, although some claim (including the

Norwegian Church Aid Norwegian Church Aid (NCA; Norwegian: ''Kirkens Nødhjelp'') is a Norwegian humanitarian and ecumenical organisation with headquarters in Oslo. It was traditionally affiliated with the state Church of Norway, but is now independent. Norwegian Chu ...

and

PRIO The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO; no, Institutt for fredsforskning) is a private research institution in peace and conflict studies, based in Oslo, Norway, with around 100 employees. It was founded in 1959 by a group of Norwegian researche ...

) that this is a breach of the intended spirit of national export regulations. The company has also been able to circumvent Norwegian laws and avoid prosecution by outsourcing manufacturing to plants in the US, Finland, and Sweden.

Products

Missile propulsion

Nammo produces the following missiles and missile propulsion systems: * AIM-120 AMRAAM *

RIM-162 ESSM The RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) is a development of the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile used to protect ships from attacking missiles and aircraft. ESSM is designed to counter supersonic maneuvering anti-ship missiles. ESSM also has the ab ...

IRIS-T The IRIS-T ("InfraRed Imaging System Tail/ Thrust Vector-Controlled") is a medium range infrared homing missile available in both air-to-air and ground defence surface-to-air variants. The missile was developed in the late 1990s–early 2000 ...

(under license) *

Exocet The Exocet () is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Etymology The missile's name was given by M. Guillot, then the technical director ...

AIM-9 Sidewinder The AIM-9 Sidewinder (where "AIM" stands for "Air Intercept Missile") is a short-range air-to-air missile which entered service with the US Navy in 1956 and subsequently was adopted by the US Air Force in 1964. Since then the Sidewinder has prove ...

* Penguin *

Naval strike missile The Naval Strike Missile (NSM) is an anti-ship and land-attack missile developed by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA). The original Norwegian name was Nytt sjømålsmissil (literally ''New sea target missile'', indicatin ...

(the rocket booster) * Ariane 5 (separation and acceleration boosters) * IDAS (interactive defence & attack for submarines)

Orbital launch vehicle

Nammo manufactures separation rocket motors for

Ariane 6 Ariane 6 is a European expendable launch system currently under development since the early 2010s by ArianeGroup on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is intended to replace the Ariane 5, as part of the Ariane launch vehicle famil ...

, and in the past manufactured them for the Ariane 5. In January 2013, Nammo and the

Andøya Rocket Range Andøya is the northernmost island in the Vesterålen archipelago, situated about inside the Arctic circle. Andøya is located in Andøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The main population centres on the island include the villages of ...

spaceport A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word ''spaceport'', and even more so ''cosmodrome'', has traditionally been used for sites capable ...

announced that they would be " developing an orbital Nanosatellite launch vehicle (NLV)

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

system called ''

North Star Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude tha ...

'' that uses a standardized hybrid motor, clustered in different numbers and arrangements, to build two types of sounding rockets and an orbital launcher", able to deliver a

nanosat A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...

into

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of about ...

Small caliber ammunition

5.56×45mm NATO The 5.56×45mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 5.56 NATO, but often pronounced "five-five-six") is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge family developed in the late 1970s in Belgium by FN Herstal. It consists of the SS109, L110, an ...

* 6.5×47mm Lapua *

7.62×39mm The 7.62×39mm (aka 7.62 Soviet, formerly .30 Russian Short) round is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge of Soviet origin. The cartridge is widely used due to the worldwide proliferation of Russian SKS and AK-47 pattern rifles, as ...

* 7.62×51mm NATO and

.308 Winchester The .308 Winchester is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge widely used for hunting, target shooting, police, military, and personal protection applications globally. It is similar but not identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO ...

7.62×54mmR The 7.62×54mmR is a rimmed rifle cartridge developed by the Russian Empire and introduced as a service cartridge in 1891. Originally designed for the bolt-action Mosin–Nagant rifle, it was used during the late tsarist era and throughout th ...

7.62×53mmR The 7.62×53mmR (also known as the 7.6×53R Finnish) rifle cartridge is a Finnish design based on the Russian 7.62×54mmR round dating back to 1891. History After gaining its independence in 1917 and after the Finnish Civil War of 1918, large nu ...

.30-06 Springfield The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use ...

(7.62×63mm) *

.338 Lapua Magnum The .338 Lapua Magnum (8.6×70 mm or 8.58×70 mm) is a rimless, bottlenecked, centerfire rifle cartridge. It was developed during the 1980s as a high-powered, long-range cartridge for military snipers. It was used in the War in Afghanistan and ...

(8.6×70mm) * 9×19mm Parabellum

Medium and large caliber ammunition

As of 2018, Nammo produced the following non-exhaustive list of medium and large caliber ammunition: * 12.7×99mm (.50 BMG) ** 12.7×99 mm Raufoss Mk 211 multipurpose *

20×102mm 20 mm caliber is a specific size of popular autocannon ammunition. It is typically used to distinguish smaller-caliber weapons, commonly called "guns", from larger-caliber "cannons" (e.g. machine gun vs. autocannon). All 20 mm cartridges ...

*20×139mm * 25×137mm *27×145mm *30×113mm *30×173mm *30mm Swimmer (

APFSDS Armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS), long dart penetrator, or simply dart ammunition, is a type of kinetic energy penetrator ammunition used to attack modern vehicle armour. As an armament for main battle tanks, it succeeds A ...

-T MK 258 Mod 1) *35×228mm * 40×51mm *

40×53mm 40 mm grenade (also styled 40mm grenade) is a generic class-name for grenade launcher ammunition ( subsonic shells) in caliber. The generic name stems from the fact that several countries have developed or adopted grenade launchers in 40 ...

*57mm L/70 3P *120 mm tank ammunition *Propellant charges for artillery and mortars *Artillery shell bodies *

Hand grenades A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade ge ...

Warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Expl ...

Shoulder-fired systems

Nammo has manufactured shoulder-fired systems since the 1960s, with licence production of the M72 LAW beginning at Raufoss in Norway in 1966. In 2007, Nammo acquired the US munitions company, Talley, Inc., after purchasing 100% of its shares. Today Nammo has operations 10 places in the US (''Nammo Defense Systems Inc.'') and is the only licensed manufacturer of the M72 LAW, with production lines in Raufoss and Mesa, Arizona. In addition to the M72, Mesa also manufactures the M141 Bunker Defeat Munition for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

, while Nammo’s facilities in Columbus, Mississippi, manufactures ammunition for the SMAW-system for the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

. Nammo Defense Systems Inc., Mesa, Arizona, was awarded a $498,092,926 firm-fixed-price contract for the full rate production of M72 light assault weapon variants and components for shoulder-launched munitions training systems on December 20, 2021.defense.gov - ''Contracts For Dec. 20, 2021''
/ref>

Rocket engine consultancy and development

In 2019 Nammo was awarded an ESA contract to initiate development of a reusable rocket engine for the ascent stage of the Heracles lunar lander. The engine may be fed by electrically driven pumps, from low pressure propellant tanks, which may enable in-space refueling.

References

External links

Nammo Bloodhound hybrid rocket motor, first test firing
9 December 2014. {{Authority control Manufacturing companies of Norway Defence companies of Norway Defence companies of Finland Defence companies of Sweden Spaceflight Companies established in 1998 Companies based in Oppland Ammunition manufacturers 1998 establishments in Norway