The U.S. Navy has ordered another 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles for
its ships and submarines. The navy continues to use Tomahawks in combat
on a regular bases. Most of these uses are publicized,
but some are not. Several hundred Tomahawks were used against Libya
last year. The Tomahawk was introduced 29 years ago and over 6,000 have
been manufactured so far. U.S. Navy has fired over
2,000 in combat and over 500 for training and testing. The U.S. Navy
has over 3,000 Tomahawks on its warships or in storage.
The current Tomahawk, the RGM-109E Block 4 Surface Ship Vertical
Launched Tomahawk Land Attack Missile weighs 1.2 ton, is six meters (18
feet) long, has a range of 1,600 kilometers, getting there
at a speed of 600-900 kilometers an hour, flying at an altitude of
17-32 meters (50-100 feet) and propelled by a jet engine generating only
600 pounds of thrust. Accuracy is on a par with JDAM
(10 meters/31 feet). The Block 4 Tomahawk can be reprogrammed in
flight to hit another target and carries a vidcam to allow a missile to
check on prospective targets.
The Block 4s were recently upgraded so that they can hit moving
targets. This is mainly intended to turn the Tomahawk into an anti-ship
missile, although it can also hit moving land targets. The
Tomahawk has been a primary land attack weapon for surface ships and
submarines since the 1990s. The Block 3 entered service in 1994, but
the Block 4 was a big upgrade a decade later, adding GPS
and the ability to go after a different target while the missile was
in flight.
The United States is developing a successor to the Tomahawk cruise
missile that will be heavier (2.2 tons), have a longer range (2,000
kilometers), and a larger (one ton) warhead. The new missile
will be stealthier and use a combination of guidance and targeting
systems (to improve the chances of success). Price will probably be the
key factor in whether this new missile ever enters
service. The new Cruise Missile XR (for Extended Range) will
probably cost at least twice as much as the current Tomahawk.
The cruise missile, when it showed up in the 1980s, was one of the
first UAVs, it just wasn't reusable. But UAVs that carry bombs and
missiles and can be reused are going to provide competition
for a new, $3 million, Cruise Missile XR.
