Description:
Mission: The
Tomahawk® Land Attack Missile (TLAM) is an all-weather, long
range,
subsonic cruise missile used for land attack warfare, launched from U.
S. Navy surface ships and U.S. Navy and Royal Navy submarines.
Features: Tomahawk carries a
nuclear or conventional payload. The conventional,
land-attack, unitary variant carries a 1,000-pound-class warhead
(TLAM-C) while the submunitions dispenser variant carries 166
combined-effects bomblets (TLAM-D). The Block III version incorporates
engine improvements, an insensitive extended range warhead,
time-of-arrival control and navigation capability using an improved
Digital Scene Matching Area Correlator (DSMAC) and Global Positioning
System (GPS) — which can significantly reduce
mission-planning time and
increase navigation and terminal accuracy.
Tomahawk Block IV (TLAM-E) is the latest improvement to the Tomahawk
missile family. Block IV capability enhancements include: (a) increased
flexibility utilizing two-way satellite communications to reprogram the
missile in-flight to a new aimpoint or new preplanned mission, send a
new mission to the missile en route to a new target, and missile health
and status messages during the flight; (b) increased responsiveness
with faster launch timelines, mission planning capability aboard the
launch platform, loiter capability in the area of emerging targets, the
ability to provide battle damage indication in the target area, and the
capability to provide a single-frame image of the target or other areas
of interest along the missile flight path; and (c) improved
affordability with a production cost of a Block IV significantly lower
than the cost of a new Block III and a 15-year Block IV recertification
interval compared to the eight-year interval for Block III.
Background: Tomahawk®
cruise missiles are designed to fly at extremely low
altitudes at high subsonic speeds, and are piloted over an evasive
route by several mission tailored guidance systems. The first
operational use was in Operation Desert Storm, 1991, with immense
success. The missile has since been used successfully in several other
conflicts. In 1995 the governments of the United States and United
Kingdom signed a Foreign Military Sales Agreement for the acquisition
of 65 missiles, marking the first sale of Tomahawk® to a
foreign
country. |
|
