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

ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other we ...

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) 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 top ...

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 (Norway), Patria (Finland), and Celsius (Sweden). The Lapua 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 LAW The M72 LAW (light anti-tank weapon, also referred to as the light anti-armor weapon or LAW as well as LAWS: light anti-armor weapons system) is a portable one-shot unguided anti-tank weapon. The solid rocket propulsion unit was developed in t ...

s from Nammo Talley, along with weapons parts and training missiles valued at NOK 600 million. These munitions were later used in Operation Cast Lead. 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, 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 and PRIO) 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 The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM (pronounced ), is an American beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. It is 7 inches (18 cm) in diameter, and employ ...

* RIM-162 ESSM * IRIS-T (under license) * Exocet *

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 Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adap ...

* Naval strike missile (the rocket booster) *

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads in ...

(separation and acceleration boosters) * IDAS (interactive defence & attack for submarines)

Orbital launch vehicle

Nammo manufactures separation rocket motors for Ariane 6, and in the past manufactured them for the

. In January 2013, Nammo and the Andøya Rocket Range spaceport 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 entir ...

system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and express ...

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 that ...

'' that uses a standardized hybrid motor, clustered in different numbers and arrangements, to build two types of

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to ...

s 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.

Small caliber ammunition

* 5.56×45mm NATO *

6.5×47mm Lapua The 6.5×47mm Lapua (designated as the 6,5 × 47 Lapua by the C.I.P.) is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge that was developed specifically for competition shooting by ammunition maker Nammo Lapua and the Swiss rifle ma ...

* 7.62×39mm *

7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first been introduced in U.S. service fo ...

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/ 7.62×53mmR *

.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 The 9×19mm Parabellum (also known as 9mm Parabellum or 9mm Luger or simply 9mm) is a rimless, tapered firearms cartridge. Originally designed by Austrian firearm designer Georg Luger in 1901, it is widely considered the most popular handgun ...

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 h ...

*20×139mm * 25×137mm *27×145mm *30×113mm *30×173mm *30mm Swimmer ( APFSDS-T MK 258 Mod 1) *35×228mm * 40×51mm * 40×53mm *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 gener ...

* Warheads

Shoulder-fired systems

Nammo has manufactured shoulder-fired systems since the 1960s, with licence production of the

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 The M141 Bunker Defeat Munition (BDM) is a disposable single-shot, shoulder-fired rocket launcher designed to defeat hardened structures. It is a modification of the United States Marine Corps Mk 153 Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon ...

for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

, while Nammo’s facilities in

Columbus, Mississippi Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, on the eastern border of Mississippi, United States, located primarily east, but also north and northeast of the Tombigbee River, which is also part of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Water ...

, 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 c ...

. 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