Next-Generation Naval Defense System Sets New Standard Against Seaborne Threats

As geopolitical tensions escalate and maritime borders grow increasingly contested, nations are racing to fortify their coastlines. Protecting territorial waters, ports and infrastructure has never been more vital. Yet, with shrinking budgets and overstretched naval fleets, many armed forces face the challenge of doing more with less. Saab’s new Coastal Defence Missile System (CDMS) offers a cost-effective, rapidly deployable solution — giving nations a powerful, land-based capability to deter and defeat seaborne threats far beyond the horizon.

Land-based lethality at long range

CDMS provides a land-mounted capability to neutralize hostile vessels at ranges beyond 300 kilometres by leveraging Saab’s proven RBS15 family of anti-ship missiles. The system pairs mobile missile vehicles with a battery command post to create a highly agile, area-denial capability. Built on advances in missile, sensor and software technology, CDMS delivers significantly increased reach and lethality compared with earlier generations of coastal missiles.

Operators may choose the RBS15 Mk3, which exceeds 200 km range, or the forthcoming RBS15 Mk4, which will exceed 300 km when deliveries begin in the late 2020s. Both variants are all-weather, fire-and-forget missiles that fly high-speed, low sea-skimming profiles and carry high-explosive warheads intended to achieve one-hit, ship-kill performance. They also offer secondary land-attack options.

Modular, mobile and hard to counter

Each missile system vehicle is a truck-based launcher carrying four RBS15 missiles on a launcher unit sized to the footprint of a 20-foot ISO shipping container. That design makes the launchers easy to conceal, rapidly redeploy, and integrate onto customers’ preferred vehicle platforms — Saab’s solution is vehicle-agnostic. Every launcher has its own hydraulic generator and power module; missiles can be fired from inside the cab or remotely from outside.

Survivability is built in: crews can execute a two-minute “shoot-and-scoot” routine — fire, pack up and move within 120 seconds — to minimize exposure to counterstrike. Logistics support vehicles with cranes and extra missile canisters enable fast reloads; swapping spent canisters can take as little as 15 minutes.

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Networked targeting and flexible deployment

A mobile battery command post coordinates placement and engagement for the missile vehicles, ingesting surveillance data from aircraft, ships, drones and radars via national command networks. Alternatively, local sensor vehicles equipped with radar or other detectors can provide targeting data. This sensor-to-shooter architecture allows CDMS batteries to be positioned either statically to safeguard critical infrastructure or redeployed quickly to emergent flashpoints.

One tactical advantage is that a small number of CDMS batteries can cover very large stretches of coastline. Thanks to the extended range of the RBS15 family, just a handful of vehicles can create effective denial zones that free up surface combatants for other missions.

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Low signature, high interoperability

CDMS vehicles can operate silently with no engine noise signature when in active mode, reducing the odds of early detection. The system also benefits from wide interoperability: the RBS15 missile is already fielded by multiple nations, including NATO members. Sweden, Finland, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and Croatia are among existing users, which simplifies logistics, training and coalition interoperability.

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Multi-role and scalable

While CDMS is optimised for land-based coastal defence, its container-sized launcher architecture lends itself to adaptation — including rapid installation on vessels without permanent RBS15 mounts, or use as a modular mission package on multi-purpose ships.

In sum, Saab’s CDMS offers an affordable, scalable way to bring surface-warfare punch ashore: high-lethality anti-ship capability, rapid deployment, and force-multiplying protection for coastlines and critical assets — at a fraction of the cost of equivalent naval platforms.