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The Tomahawk sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM) and the Tomahawk ground-launched cruise missile (GLCM) had a length of 6.4 m (21 feet), a diameter of 53 cm (21 inches), and a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles). Although the consensus is that Tomahawks are a highly successful weapon, these weapons have several limitations. One of these is that their flight paths are relatively predictable, which is a function of the fact that some terrain, notably deserts, provides relatively few features for terrain following guidance. A second problem is that mission planning for terrain following guidance systems is more time consuming and complicated in terms of intelligence requirements than one might expect. For example, to use Tomahawks a unit would have to request a targeting package from such agencies as the Defense Mapping Agency to gather the data necessary for a mission. A third limitation was that Tomahawks could not be used against hardened targets because the 1,000 pound warhead, the weapon’s accuracy, and its final kinetic energy when it hits the target do not produce high probabilities of kill.
Long-range subsonic
Some cruise missiles can only fly at extremely high altitudes, and then they descend steeply once they’ve reached their destination. Higher-altitude flight uses less fuel than lower-altitude flight, allowing the missile to travel further. Unfortunately, modern radars and sensors are often set up to identify and track threats at high altitudes, making the missile more vulnerable to missile defense systems. According to the Federation of American Scientists, a ballistic missile is one that has a ballistic trajectory over most of its flight path.
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During this phase, which can last for less than a minute, strategic warheads can be traveling at speeds greater than 3,200 kilometers per hour (1,988 miles per hour). Once it is close to the target, the missile switches to a "terminal guidance system" to choose the point of impact. The point of impact could be pre-programmed by the GPS or Tercom system.
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Tomahawks can also use their onboard cameras to transmit battle-damage assessment data back to military analysts. Several publications, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal expect the U.S. to use cruise missiles if the Obama administration does order strikes. Anonymous senior U.S. officials told NBC that a three-day cruise missile barrage against the Assad regime is possible. Yesterday, President Obama said he had not made a decision on whether to intervene in Syria. Since then, cruise missile guidance systems have improved, but the overall limitations of the weapon system remain. The war in Ukraine will likely impart lessons on the next generation of cruise missiles, but the platform isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Tomahawk cruise missiles during the Persian Gulf War has heightened interest in cruise missile acquisition in many countries. And the extent to which Biden’s national security team supports conventional hypersonic cruise missiles is not yet apparent. Part of the broader appeal of hypersonic weapons to nations like Russia, China, and the United States is that the speed and trajectories of the missiles make them harder to detect than ICBMs. The ballistic arc of ICBMs means the launch is visible to radar while it is still ascending, once it clears the horizon line.
The Block II TLAM-A missile achieved initial operating capability in 1984. The missile was first deployed in combat during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Among the diverse guidance methods, Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation (DSMAC) relies on an onboard camera to identify the target. This image is then compared to a stored reference image using an image correlator, accentuating the missile’s ability to refine target identification during the terminal phase.
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The US signed a foreign military sales (FMS) agreement with the UK in 1995 to supply 65 Tomahawks for use with the Royal Navy nuclear submarines. It can be armed with a nuclear or unitary warhead or a conventional submunitions dispenser with combined-effect bomblets. The Tomahawk Block IV missiles were converted and upgraded to Block V in 2017. The upgraded Tomahawk includes extended range, enhanced navigation and communication systems and modernised data-link radio.
Cruise missiles have an 8.5-foot (2.61-meter) wingspan, are powered by turbofan engines and can fly 500 to 1,000 miles (805 to 1,610 km) depending on the configuration. After the war, the U.S., with the help of captured German technology and scientists, built its own arsenal of even more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of unleashing nuclear destruction upon targets on the other side of the world. The Soviet Union and China built ICBMs as well, setting up a world where a nuclear war was deterred by the prospect of mutual assured destruction. Things got real, though, on Jan. 7, 2020, when Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops. It was Iran's retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that killed Iran Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 3, 2020.
They can be launched from ground, airplane, and sea platforms like submarines and surface warships. Three main versions of the cruise missile were being manufactured in the United States during the mid-1980s. All were single-stage, turbofan jet-propelled missiles with a cruising speed of 885 km per hour (550 miles per hour) and weighed from 1,200 to 1,800 kg (2,700 to 3,900 pounds) each. The missiles were guided by an inertial navigation system that was updated during flight by a technique called Tercom (terrain contour matching), using contour maps stored in the system’s computerized memory. The air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) had a length of 6.3 m (20.7 feet); it attained a range of 2,500 km (1,500 miles).
In October 2017, Russia began cruise missile strikes against so-called terrorist targets in Syria. These Novator 3M14 Kalibr cruise missiles are very similar to Tomahawk missiles, but use Russia’s GLONASS satellite navigation system, an alternative to the American GPS. Early Tomahawk cruise missiles followed a pre-programmed flight path to target using a system called terrain contour matching (TERCOM). In TERCOM, a radar altimeter scans the terrain below the missile, then compares it to a terrain elevation map stored in its onboard computer brain.
Even though cruise missiles are cheaper, more mobile, and more versatile, ballistic missiles are among the most feared armaments in existence. No nation has launched an ICBM as an act of war against another nation, although some nations have tested these missiles during training exercises. According to one definition, a sub-orbital space flight reaches an altitude greater than 100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. At this altitude, known as the Kármán line, once the fuel runs out, the missile’s direction cannot be altered; it follows a path based on the speed of its launch and the force of gravity attempting to pull it back to the Earth’s surface. Gravity eventually guides the missile and its payload toward its intended target, which could be a chemical or biological weapon or a nuclear device.
The DSMAC system uses a camera and an image correlator to find the target, and is especially useful if the target is moving. A cruise missile can also be equipped with thermal imaging or illumination sensors (as used in smart bombs). Cruise missiles come in a number of variations (see the links at the end of the article for more information) and can be launched from submarines, destroyers or aircraft. In 2017, North Korea unexpectedly staged a test launch of what was then a new ballistic missile, the Pukguksong-2.
There were no casualties and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif defended the missile strike on the U.S. bases in Iraq, saying it was an act of "self-defense." In the Soviet Union, Sergei Korolev headed the GIRD-06 cruise missile project from 1932 to 1939, which used a rocket-powered boost-glide bomb design. The 06/III (RP-216) and 06/IV (RP-212) contained gyroscopic guidance systems.[5] The vehicle was designed to boost to 28 km altitude and glide a distance of 280 km, but test flights in 1934 and 1936 only reached an altitude of 500 meters. Meanwhile, new versions of the Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and the Tomahawk missiles are set to enter production. Finally, a new class of air vehicle that blurs the line between a cruise missile and an unmanned aircraft system is gaining traction. Compared to China, Taiwan is tiny, less wealthy on a national level and isolated.
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. The US Navy will use the upgraded Tomahawk cruise missiles beyond 2040. Raytheon was contracted to integrate the upgraded navigation and communication systems into the Block IV Tactical Tomahawk (TACTOM) missile in March 2020. Infrared (IR) guidance presents yet another terminal phase technique, steering missiles toward heat-emitting sources like engines. Despite its efficacy, IR guidance’s simplicity renders it incapable of distinguishing between friendly, adversarial, or extraneous IR signals in crowded battlefields.
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