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In response to this threat, there have been increasing calls in Tokyo to field a “counter-strike capability” that could put China and North Korea’s missile launchers at risk. The latest Block V model re-introduces anti-ship capability in a subvariant called the Block Va Maritime Strike Tomahawk, integrating a radar seeker that enables it to home in on moving ships. There’s also a Block Vb with an advanced JMEWS warhead capable of bunker-busting penetrating strikes on underground missile silos and WMD facilities. Defense Minister Minoru Kihara announced in December a decision to accelerate deployment of some Tomahawks and Japanese-made Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles beginning in fiscal year 2025, a year before the original plan.
Japan signs agreement to purchase 400 Tomahawk missiles as US envoy lauds its defense buildup
Despite upgrades to Japanese air defense, including huge warships dedicated to ballistic missile defense using SM-3 missiles, likely some attacks would get through and potentially wreak great destruction. In a recent simulation of an attempted Chinese invasion of Taiwan, missile attacks on Japanese bases destroyed hundreds of American and Japanese combat aircraft on the ground. One question remains the choice of launch platform, as air-, sea-, submarine- and land-based options reportedly were considered. The cheapest option would be land-based trucks, but warships and aircraft would effectively expand the range and possible approach vectors of Japan’s Tomahawks. Presently, reports suggest they’ll begin deployment on Japan’s powerful destroyers, which already come with the same Mark 41 Vertical Launch Systems used by U.S. The U.S. Navy is now producing a first-of-its-kind next-generation Tomahawk missile able to fire from Navy ships and destroy moving targets at sea, a new variant of the combat-tried cruise missile bringing another dimension to maritime warfare.
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Posted: Tue, 27 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College. Defense News first reported the Army’s plan to pursue the midrange missile in September 2020.
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The Navy canceled the program and moved on to the more sophisticated Regulus I cruise missile. The first operational nuclear-armed missile capable of being launched from a submarine, the Regulus I entered service in 1954 and remained on alert until replaced by the solid-fuel Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile in the early 1960s. Our Tomahawk is a prototype vehicle that the Convair Division of the General Dynamics Corporation built and tested on four occasions from 1976 to 1978. Launched from surface ships and submarines, operational missiles flew at 885 kilometers per hour (550 miles per hour) and used sophisticated terrain-hugging radar to cover a range of about 2,414 kilometers (1,500 miles). Capable of carrying conventional explosives or a nuclear warhead, the Tomahawk represented the state-of-the art in pilotless aircraft technology after it entered service in the 1980s.
Army selected the Navy’s Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) and the BGM-109 Tomahawk for its Mid-Range Capability (MRC), part of the service’s ground-launched strike modernization effort. Following the selection, the Army awarded a $339.3 million contract to integrate both weapons for a ground-based launcher by late 2022. During the opening salvos of a regional attack, military planning calls for sea-based Tomahawks to be used to compromise and suppress enemy air operations and defenses.
The U.S. Army’s new ground-based launcher, capable of supporting Tomahawk cruise missiles and SM-6, appeared for the first time in the Indo-Pacific in a deployment to the Northern Philippines for military drills. The exact guidance system and navigational dynamics of the Tomahawk missile are classified. However, it is known that it can use GPS or inertial guidance systems to hit the target. Navy states that up to 15 targets can be pre-programmed for missile salvos.
Royal Navy
In August it was reported that RTX, formerly Raytheon, secured a $124.2m contract worth to enhance the capabilities of Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST) missiles for the US Navy. The developmental MST seeker suites are a component of the weapon’s recertification process, currently underway with the Low-Rate Production Three initiative. Raytheon received a $122m contract from the US Navy in March 2015 for the production of 114 Tomahawk Block IV all-up round missiles. Raytheon conducted an active seeker test flight for the Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile in January 2016. The Tomahawk is designed to operate at very low altitudes while maintaining high-subsonic speeds. Its modular design enables the integration of numerous types of warheads, guidance and control systems.
In 2017, Raytheon’s Tomahawk program manager told reporters at an event at the missile plant in Tucson, Ariz., that the navigation system upgrades will ensure the missile can strike targets even if GPS is taken down. Today’s guided missile cruisers carry 122 silos, while destroyers carry between 90 and 96 silos. Theoretically, a cruiser could carry up to 122 Block Va missiles, though a more rounded mix of all of the above is preferred. The Tomahawk was first deployed in combat in the 1991 Gulf War in Operation Desert Storm, with the first salvo launched from the USS Paul F. Foster (DD 964) at Iraqi targets.18 Overall, the mission achieved initial success. “We’ve seen just how effective and hard to target land-based, long-range precision fires are, and we are continuing to add those, and right now we have the medium-range capability that is actually out and exercising with our partners,” he said. The Tomahawk is a key weapons system manufactured by RTX, which has sought to maintain its relevance in the evolving battlespace through spiral development and upgrades.
Japan is accelerating its deployment of long-range cruise missiles capable of hitting targets in China or North Korea, while Japanese troops increasingly work side-by-side with the U.S. and other friendly nations and take on more offensive roles. In May 2022, the UK announced that its stock of Block IV TLAM munitions were to be upgraded to the Block V variant for specific use in the Astute-class submarines. The Block V, according to UK Defence Equipment and Support, an arm of the Ministry of Defence, would have a longer range than the Block IV at up to 1,000 miles, and also has updated in-flight communications and target selection.
Sébastien Roblin has written on the technical, historical, and political aspects of international security and conflict for publications including 19FortyFive, The National Interest, MSNBC, Forbes.com, Inside Unmanned Systems and War is Boring. He holds a Master’s degree from Georgetown University and served with the Peace Corps in China. Japan and the United States agreed to expedite the deployment “in response to the increasingly severe security environment,” Kihara said.
Tomahawks are launched vertically from ships, but they can be launched horizontally from torpedo tubes on attack submarines or from external launchers attached to a submarine’s hull. Thereafter it is powered by a turbofan engine that does not emit much heat, which makes infrared detection difficult. It can also elude detection by radar because it has a small cross section and operates at low altitudes. As the TERCOM scans the landscape, the Tomahawk missile is capable of twisting and turning like a radar-evading fighter plane, skimming the landscape at an altitude of only 30–90 metres (100–300 feet). Japan’s military also is reportedly planning to build a ‘test boat’ to study equipping Japanese submarines to fire Tomahawks.
Submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles entered service in 1983 with conventional (i.e., nonnuclear) land-attack and antiship missile variants, as well as with a land-attack missile carrying a nuclear warhead. The nuclear variant has since been retired, and a land-attack cluster-bomb variant that disperses bomblets has been added. By the start of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Tomahawks had been fitted to surface ships.
The USS Missouri, a World War II-era battleship and the very last of its kind, was fitted to fire Tomahawks during the opening salvos of the First Gulf War. It fired a total of 28 cruise missiles, in addition to its 16-inch deck guns. Block Vb is more oriented toward striking land targets with the new Joint Multiple Effects Warhead (MEWS). The weapon is a bit mysterious, but it seems to be a 1,000-pound warhead capable of striking both surface and underground hardened targets, including “integrated air defense systems and weapons of mass destruction”. The newest variant adds upgraded navigation and communications gear to older Tomahawks, electronics that, according to Defense News, make it easier to work through electronic warfare jamming and more difficult for enemy radars to detect. That’s important, because once detected, subsonic cruise missiles are relatively easy to shoot down.
Unlike the Navy, however, the Air Force kept a hand in cruise missile technology. Early systems, such as the Matador, Snark, and the ambitious Navaho, lived on in newer operational versions like the Hound Dog, which flew aboard B-52 long-range strategic bombers. Then, in the 1970s, the Air Force debuted the Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) that bore a close resemblance in performance and capabilities to the Tomahawk. The missile can be launched from over 140 US Navy ships and submarines and Astute and Trafalgar class submarines of the Royal Navy. All cruisers, destroyers, guided missile and attack submarines in the US Navy are equipped with a Tomahawk weapons system.
Unless Japan builds a new class of cruise missile submarines with vertical launch cells, these would have to be launched horizontally from torpedo tubes, permitting only a low-volume attack. Still, stealthy submarines can launch attacks from unexpected directions, confounding air defenses. Tomahawks have been upgraded several times over their years of service. The Block IV Tomahawk, in service since 2004, includes a two-way data link for in-flight retargeting, terrain navigation, digital scene-matching cameras and a high-grade inertial navigation system, Raytheon officials said.
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