Tomahawk missile


The BGM-109 Tomahawk 'Land Attack Missile' is an American long-range, all-weather, jet-powered, subsonic cruise missile that is used by the United States Navy, Royal Australian Navy, Royal Netherlands Navy and Royal Navy in ship and submarine-based land-attack operations.
Developed at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University under James H. Walker near Laurel, Maryland, the Tomahawk emerged in the 1970s as a modular cruise missile first manufactured by General Dynamics. Early tests of the missile took place between 1983 and 1993, during which time 23 cruise missiles were tested over northern Canada under the "Canada–U.S. Test and Evaluation Program". The goal of the program was to simulate the climate and terrain similar to that of the northern Soviet Union, and to allow the North American Aerospace Defence Command to develop an anti-cruise capability. The Tomahawk aimed to fulfill the need for a medium- to long-range, low-altitude missile with diverse capabilities. Its modular design allows for compatibility with a range of warheads, including high-explosive, submunitions, and bunker-busters. The Tomahawk can use a variety of guidance systems, including GPS, inertial navigation, and terrain contour matching. Over a dozen variants and upgraded versions have been developed since the original design, including air-, sub-, and ground-launched configurations with both conventional and nuclear armaments. The Tomahawk's manufacturing history has seen several transitions. General Dynamics served as the sole supplier in the 1970s. From 1992 until 1994, McDonnell Douglas was the sole supplier of Tomahawks, producing Block II and Block III versions and remanufacturing many Tomahawks to Block III specifications. In 1994, Hughes Aircraft, having purchased General Dynamics' missile division in 1992, outbid McDonnell Douglas to become the sole supplier of Tomahawks. A joint venture between Hughes and Raytheon manufactured the missile from 1995 until Raytheon's acquisition of Hughes in 1997, solidifying their position as the sole supplier. In 2016, the US Department of Defense purchased 149 Tomahawk Block IV missiles for $202.3 million., Raytheon remains the sole manufacturer of non-nuclear, sea-launched Tomahawk variants.

Variants

The variants and multiple upgrades to the missile include:
  • BGM-109A Tomahawk Land Attack Missile – Nuclear with a W80 nuclear warhead. Retired from service sometime between 2010 and 2013. Reports from early 2018 state that the US Navy is considering reintroducing a nuclear-armed cruise missile into service.
  • RGM/UGM-109B Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missile – Anti-ship variant with active radar homing; withdrawn from service in 1994 and converted to TLAM-E Block IV version.
  • BGM-109C Tomahawk Land Attack Missile – Conventional with WDU-25/B unitary warhead also used on the AGM-12B Bullpup. The WDU-25/B warhead weighed and contained of Picratol and Composition H-6 high explosives. Starting in May 1993, the WDU-25/B warhead was replaced by the lighter WDU-36/B warhead weighing and filled with of PBXN-107 high explosive. The smaller warhead allowed the fuel tank to be enlarged, increasing the maximum range. This version was given the designation TLAM-C Block III.
  • BGM-109D Tomahawk Land Attack Missile – Dispenser with a submunitions dispenser that carried 166 BLU-97/B Combined Effects Bomblets with Cyclotol high explosive per munition
  • * Kit 2 Tomahawk Land Attack Missile – with a unique warhead used to disable electrical grids. First used in the Gulf War.
  • RGM/UGM-109E Tomahawk Land Attack Missile – improved version of the TLAM-C Block III. Also called Tactical Tomahawk.
  • BGM-109G Gryphon Ground Launched Cruise Missile – with a W84 nuclear warhead; withdrawn from service in 1991 to comply with the INF Treaty.
  • AGM-109H/L Medium Range Air-to-Surface Missile – a shorter-range, turbojet powered air-launched cruise missile with conventional non-nuclear warheads intended for USAF and Navy. AGM-109H for USAF, long, with TERCOM en-route and DSMAC terminal guidance, and payload of runway cratering submunitions for use against airfields. AGM-109L for US Navy, long, with unitary warhead for use against ships or high value land targets, and imaging infra-red seeker and datalink. Never entered service, cost 569,000.
BGM-109G Gryphon Ground Launched Cruise Missiles and their truck-like launch vehicles were employed at bases in Europe; they were withdrawn from service to comply with the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Many of the anti-ship versions were converted into TLAMs at the end of the Cold War. The Block III TLAMs that entered service in 1993 can fly farther using their new turbofan engines and use Global Positioning System receivers to strike more precisely. Block III TLAM-Cs retain the Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation II navigation system, allowing three kinds of navigation: GPS-only, which allow for rapid mission planning, with some reduced accuracy, DSMAC-only, which take longer to plan but terminal accuracy is somewhat better; and GPS-aided missions that combine DSMAC II and GPS navigation for greatest accuracy. Block IV TLAMs have an improved turbofan engine that allows them to get better fuel economy and change speeds in flight. The Block IV TLAMs can loiter better and have electro-optical sensors that allow real-time battle damage assessment. The Block IVs can be given a new target in flight and can transmit an image, via satcom, immediately before impact to help determine whether the missile is on target and the likely damage from the attack.

Upgrades

A major improvement to the Tomahawk is network-centric warfare-capabilities, using data from multiple sensors to find its target. It will also be able to send data from its sensors to these platforms.
Tomahawk Block II variants were all tested during January 1981 to October 1983. Deployed in 1984, some of the improvements included: an improved booster rocket, cruise missile radar altimeter, and navigation through the Digital Scene Matching Area Corellator. DSMAC was a highly accurate rudimentary AI which allowed early low power computers to navigate and precisely target objectives using cameras on board the missile. With its ability to visually identify and aim directly at a target, it was more accurate than weapons using estimated GPS coordinates. Due to the very limited computer power of the day, DSMAC did not directly evaluate the maps, but instead would compute contrast maps and then combine multiple maps into a buffer, then compare the average of those combined images to determine if it was similar to the data in its small memory system. The data for the flight path was very low resolution in order to free up memory to be used for high resolution data about the target area. The guidance data was computed by a mainframe computer which took spy satellite photos and estimated what the terrain would appear like during low level flight. Since this data would not match the real terrain exactly, and since terrain changes seasonally and with changes in light quality, DSMAC would filter out differences between maps and use the remaining similar sections in order to find its location regardless of changes in how the ground appeared. It also had an extremely bright strobe light it could use to illuminate the ground for fractions of a second in order to find its position at night, and was able to take the difference in ground appearance into account.
Tomahawk Block III introduced in 1993 added time-of-arrival control and improved accuracy for Digital Scene Matching Area Correlator and jam-resistant GPS, smaller, lighter WDU-36 warhead, engine improvements and extended missile's range.
Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System takes advantage of a loitering feature in the missile's flight path and allows commanders to redirect the missile to an alternative target, if required. It can be reprogrammed in-flight to attack predesignated targets with GPS coordinates stored in its memory or to any other GPS coordinates. Also, the missile can send data about its status back to the commander. It entered service with the US Navy in late 2004. The Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System added the capability for limited mission planning on board the firing unit.
Tomahawk Block IV introduced in 2006 adds the strike controller which can change the missile in flight to one of 15 preprogrammed alternate targets or redirect it to a new target. This targeting flexibility includes the capability to loiter over the battlefield awaiting a more critical target. The missile can also transmit battle damage indication imagery and missile health and status messages via the two-way satellite data link. Firing platforms now have the capability to plan and execute GPS-only missions. Block IV also has an improved anti-jam GPS receiver for enhanced mission performance.
Block IV includes Tomahawk Weapons Control System, and Tomahawk Command and Control System.
On 16 August 2010, the Navy completed the first live test of the Joint Multi-Effects Warhead System, a new warhead designed to give the Tomahawk the same blast-fragmentation capabilities while introducing enhanced penetration capabilities in a single warhead. In the static test, the warhead detonated and created a hole large enough for the follow-through element to completely penetrate the concrete target. In February 2014, US Central Command sponsored development and testing of the JMEWS, analyzing the ability of the programmable warhead to integrate onto the Block IV Tomahawk, giving the missile bunker buster effects to better penetrate hardened structures.
In 2012, the USN studied applying Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile technology into the Tactical Tomahawk.
In 2014, Raytheon began testing Block IV improvements to attack sea and moving land targets. The new passive radar seeker will pick up the electromagnetic radar signature of a target and follow it, and actively send out a signal to bounce off potential targets before impact to discriminate its legitimacy before impact. Mounting the multi-mode sensor on the missile's nose would remove fuel space, but company officials believe the Navy would be willing to give up space for the sensor's new technologies. The previous Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missile, retired over a decade earlier, was equipped with inertial guidance and the seeker of the Harpoon missile and there was concern with its ability to clearly discriminate between targets from a long distance, since at the time Navy sensors did not have as much range as the missile itself, which would be more reliable with the new seeker's passive detection and millimeter-wave active radar homing. Raytheon estimates adding the new seeker would cost $250,000 per missile. Other upgrades include a sea-skimming flight path. The first Block IV TLAMs modified with a maritime attack capability were scheduled to enter service in 2021.
A supersonic version of the Tomahawk is under consideration for development with a ramjet to increase its speed to Mach 3. A limiting factor to this is the dimensions of shipboard launch tubes. Instead of modifying every ship able to carry cruise missiles, the ramjet-powered Tomahawk would still have to fit within a diameter and long tube.
In October 2015, Raytheon announced the Tomahawk had demonstrated new capabilities in a test launch, using its onboard camera to take a reconnaissance photo and transmit it to fleet headquarters. It then entered a loitering pattern until given new targeting coordinates to strike.
By January 2016, Los Alamos National Laboratory was working on a project to turn unburned fuel left over when a Tomahawk reaches its target into an additional explosive force. To do this, the missile's JP-10 fuel is turned into a fuel air explosive to combine with oxygen in the air and burn rapidly. The thermobaric explosion of the burning fuel acts, in effect, as an additional warhead and can even be more powerful than the main warhead itself when there is sufficient fuel left in the case of a short-range target.
Tomahawk Block V was introduced in 2021 with improvements to navigation and in-flight targeting. Block Va, the Maritime Strike Tomahawk which allows the missile to engage a moving target at sea, and Block Vb outfitted with the JMEWS warhead for hard-target penetration, will be released after the initial batch of Block V is delivered in March 2021. In 2025, a spokesperson for the U.S. Navy's Tomahawk program announced that the MST would be operational on destroyers by the end of September that year, with deployment to attack submarines to follow in FY26. All Block IV Tomahawks will be converted to Block V standard, while the remaining Block III missiles will be retired and demilitarized.
Tomahawk Block V have longer range and dynamic targeting with the capability to hit vessels at sea. Raytheon is recertifying and modernizing the missile, extending its service life by 15 years, and resulting in the new Tomahawk Block V series:
  • Block V: A modernized TACTOM with upgraded navigation and communication
  • Block VA: Block V anti-ship version, capable of hitting moving targets at sea. Block VA's range is shorter than the Block V's, due to the extra space for the new navigation/sensor/passive radar needs. Estimate the Block VA's range is
  • Block VB: Block V, with a joint multi-effects warhead that can hit more diverse land targets.
In 2020, Los Alamos National Laboratory reported that it would use corn ethanol to produce domestic fuel for Tomahawk missiles, which also does not require harsh acids to manufacture, compared to petroleum-based JP-10.