USS Gabrielle Giffords fired the Naval Strike Missile on 19 March. (Photo: USN) Naval Strike Missile is equipping Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ships for the USN. The Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Gabrielle Giffords has successfully launched the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) in a shipboard operational testing and evaluation exercise, the USN announced on 30 March. ‘The successful missile shoot [on 19 March] demonstrates value for long-range anti-ship cruise missiles aboard LCS,’ the USN claimed. NSM is a long-range precision strike weapon that flies at sea-skimming altitude, has a terrain-following capability and uses an advanced seeker for precise targeting. NSM was fired from an LCS in 2014 at the Point Mugu test range in California.