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Raytheon’s supersonic SM-6 can reach speeds of Mach 3.5 – with future iterations believed to be capable of reaching hypersonic speeds – but cost more than four times as much per shot and have less range. That’s the Tomahawk’s key differentiator, said Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain and analyst with Telemus Group. The actual payload of the Tomahawk can consist of a number of different munitions. But the primary warhead of the Tomahawk is a 1,000-pound high explosive charge.
Range and power
The Block IV Tomahawk missile is outfitted with advanced electronic support measure (ESM) seeker in Block IV Tomahawk missile. Its joint multi-effects warhead enables the commander to control the blast. The Tomahawk Block IV uses GPS navigation and a satellite data-link to continue through a pre-set course.
Space Force lays out 8 areas where it wants commercial firms to help out
Costs for rebuilding would be significant for complete reconstruction, estimated to be as high as $12.6 trillion if hit by a missile with an 18Mt payload, based on the HE rebuilding costs. This page analyzes the destructive cost of different missile warhead payloads. It provides an estimated range of explosion with estimated medical, fiscal, and humanitarian costs for each of the payload types.
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Thus, US “decisionmakers would need to consider whether the cost of a wide-area cruise missile defense was proportionate to the overall risk posed by LACM,” CBO says. Cruise missiles can be a valuable tool for militaries, providing precision strikes with minimal collateral damage. However, the cost of acquiring and launching cruise missiles can be significant, ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars for smaller models to over $10 million for larger, more advanced models.
The Tomahawk is one of the most effective missiles in the Pentagon’s history. The missile, which General Dynamics first designed in the 1970s, was one of the first truly effective cruise missiles. Unlike traditional missiles that use rocket motors, fly high altitudes, and travel at Mach 2+ speeds, cruise missiles use turbojet engines, fly at low altitudes, and travel at subsonic speeds.
Latest large-scale attack on Ukraine cost Russia at least US$1.27 billion - Ukrainska Pravda
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Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base
The desired range and price requirements are accompanied by NAVAIR’s ask for industry respondents who can produce “a minimum of 500” MACE missiles per year. This is likely well short of the quantities an effective long range air-launched cruise would generate in terms of demand. Current Air Force plans call for the procurement of about 1,000 new nuclear-capable missiles to replace the current fleet of AGM-86B missiles that have been operational since 1986. The service says a new ALCM is needed because the existing missiles are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and are losing their ability to penetrate sophisticated air defenses. The new missile will be compatible with the B-52H and planned B-21 bombers.
Costs Of Cruise Missile Defense May Top Benefits, Suggests CBO
Other types in coming years could fill the gap that results from a shortfall in Tomahawk modernization. Naval Institute News reported that the first submarine in the Navy’s Ohio-class replacement program will be called the Columbia and that the program will now be called the Columbia-class program. In an Aug. 10 press conference at the Pentagon, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said the program “is not on hold” but that the department still needs to “get on the same page” regarding how to estimate the cost of the new missile system. An early draft estimate prepared by the Air Force in fiscal year 2015 projected the price to acquire the missile fleet at $8.3 billion. Tomahawk Block IV missile demonstrated its moving target capability in tests conducted in February 2015.
The Klub export variants all have their ranges downgraded to between 140 and 190 miles, so as to comply with the Missile Technology Control Regime, which forbids export of cruise missiles with ranges exceeding three hundred kilometers. Klub missiles are now deployed on Kilo-class submarines in the navies of China, India, Algeria, Vietnam and possibly Iran, as well as India’s six Talwar-class frigates. China also has developed the longer-range YJ-18 cruise missile, which is thought to be a partial copy of the Klub. Besides costs, the study also finds that there are operational obstacles to cruise missile defense of the homeland — such as the difficulty of rapidly distinguishing between incoming missiles and civilian aircraft. Another problem is the short time to find, track and respond to an incoming missile.
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The Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System (TTWCS) integrated within the ship’s systems computes the path to engage targets. The system enables the planning of new missions on board the launch vessel. TTWCS is also used to communicate with multiple missiles for reassigning the targets and redirecting the missiles in flight.
An F-16 fighter jet tops out at 1,500 miles per hour and the much larger Minuteman III ballistic missile can reach speeds of up to 15,000 miles per hour. Supposedly, the Tomahawk's relatively low speed helps it avoid radar systems more efficiently. Additionally, it flies at an altitude of between 100 and 300 feet, much lower than conventional fighter aircraft. Some may be surprised, or even a bit mortified, at just how expensive some of these weapons are.
A MRBM with an average of 1,080kg HE payload would create an explosive damage radius of up to 1.33km. In an urban center there could be up to 115,144 casualties in the affected area. A SRBM with an average of 540kg HE payload would create an explosive damage radius of up to 1.06km. In an urban center there could be up to 77,600 casualties in the affected area. A CM with an average of 561kg HE payload would create an explosive damage radius of up to 1.07km. In an urban center there could be up to 80,000 casualties in the affected area.
What is presented below are the unit costs, rounded to the nearest dollar, that the Navy expects to pay for these weapons in the 2021 Fiscal Year as they appear in the official budget documents. It's important to note that individual unit prices can vary from year to year due to a number of factors, including the economies of scale of placing larger or smaller orders. As such, the estimated price point for certain missiles may even be significantly different just between purchases made through the base budget and the supplemental Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget. The Navy could fire them in combat as a sort of operational test “to demonstrate their capabilities,” Red said. According to an informed source, the Navy in December 2010 projected the total life-cycle cost of the Columbia-class program to be $342 billion in then-year dollars through the 2080s. The source said the Navy prepared a second life-cycle estimate in 2014 that put the cost at $282 billion.
A missile with an anthrax payload would create a high-cost scenario in any environment. Raytheon planned to undertake recertification and modernisation programmes for Tomahawk Block IV missile in 2019 to add maritime strike capability and multiple-effects warhead upgrades to the missiles. After initial interest and planning (2005), the Dutch Ministry of Defence in 2023 confirmed ordering the ship launched- and submarine launched versions of the Tomahawk to be installed on both existing as well as future frigates & submarines. The United States has deployed nine nuclear cruise missiles at one time or another.
The cost of using these cheaper interceptors, however, was operational risk, allowing the missile within a mile of the roughly $2 billion ship and all of the sailors on it before it was shot down. On the one hand, they provide a highly accurate delivery system for conventional and nuclear weapons, and can be used to strike targets with precision and minimal collateral damage. On the other hand, they can be used to deliver weapons of mass destruction, and the proliferation of cruise missile technology could lead to an arms race between nations.
It can also carry cluster munitions consisting of small bomblets, similar to the ATACMS currently used in Ukraine. For explosive force, Tomahawks were more than enough to disable runways or sink ships. Tomahawk missiles have been world famous since the first Gulf War in 1991 when the United States used the missile against Saddam Hussein's forces in Iraq and Kuwait. Since then, the missile system has been used in nearly every conflict the United States has been involved in, including recent strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Given the weapon's ubiquity, it's worth exploring what exactly a Tomahawk missile is. The United States Navy reports that over 2,300 Tomahawks have been deployed in combat, with that number increasing by the day.
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According to budget data from the United States Marine Corps from 2022, each Tomahawk costs around $2 million. As of now, the United States and the United Kingdom are the only countries to deploy Tomahawk missiles, although Australia and Japan have put out bids to purchase Tomahawks. The Navy’s ask that MACE be able to carry a variety of interchangeable payloads and seekers points to multiple applications as well.
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