Lithuania Joins Norway's Modular Warship Program
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- Lithuania signed a government-to-government MoU with Norway on July 8, 2026, on the sidelines of the NATO Summit, becoming the first official international partner in the programme and designating the Norwegian modular platforms as its preferred option for replacing legacy naval assets after 2030, with an initial plan to procure up to four modular multi-role vessels plus mission-specific payload packages.
- Norway's domestic Royal Norwegian Navy requirement is up to 28 standardised vessels across two baselines — ocean-going and coastal — designed to replace more than ten disparate legacy vessel classes currently serving both the Navy and the Coast Guard.
- Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace and Salt Ship Design were awarded a concept and design development contract by the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA) in March 2026, guiding a design philosophy of being 'as civilian as possible, as military as necessary' with containerized, plug-and-play modular systems.
- The Norwegian government confirmed that potential UK deliveries are being factored into the project's industrial scaling, directly tied to the bilateral strategic agreement on Norway's frigate procurement, with analysts pointing to Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance, mine warfare motherships, and next-generation OPVs as candidate Royal Navy roles.
- Norwegian Defence Minister Tore O. Sandvik framed the partnership as a path to 'lower costs and better interoperability, not only during operations but also within training, logistics, and maintenance,' with the consortium set to finalize technical requirements and reference design by end of 2026, a shipbuilding competition running late 2026 through spring 2027, construction contracts later in 2027, and the first vessel on track for delivery to the Royal Norwegian Navy in 2030.
Why it matters: Lithuania becomes the proof-of-concept customer for an 'international class' hull that Norway explicitly designed to scale across allies — securing a first foreign buyer validates the cost-sharing logic the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency built the programme around. For Vilnius, buying into the same platform as Norway and potentially the Royal Navy means the Baltic fleet's post-2030 replacement ships come with built-in training and logistics interoperability with two North Sea and Baltic navies.
