- Also called:
- Tomahawk cruise missile or BGM-109
Tomahawk
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What is a Tomahawk cruise missile?
The Tomahawk is an American-made, low-flying strategic guided missile that can be launched from naval ships or submarines to strike land targets. It is a long-range, unmanned weapon with high accuracy.
The missile has a range of approximately 2,400 km and can travel up to 885 km per hour. It uses inertial and terrain-contour-matching (TERCOM) radar guidance, comparing a stored map with the actual terrain to locate its position relative to the target. It can also transmit battle-damage assessment data back to military analysts.
First used in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, Tomahawks have been used in various conflicts to destroy hardened targets and suppress enemy air operations.
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What is the main purpose of the Tomahawk missile?
The Tomahawk is an American-made, long-range, low-flying strategic guided missile that can be launched from naval ships or submarines. It is designed to strike fixed land targets, such as communication and air-defense sites, in high-risk environments where manned aircraft may be vulnerable. These unmanned weapons can travel up to approximately 2,400 km at roughly 885 km per hour and have an accuracy of about 5 meters.
During regional attacks, military planning uses sea-based Tomahawks to suppress enemy air operations and defenses. Once launched, they can be reassigned mid-flight, and circle until a new target is selected. They can also transmit battle-damage assessment data back to military analysts using onboard cameras.
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How is a Tomahawk cruise missile launched?
The Tomahawk is an American-made, low-flying strategic guided missile that can be launched to strike land targets from naval ships or submarines.
Tomahawks are launched vertically from ships. However, submarines can launch them horizontally from their torpedo tubes or from external launchers fixed to the submarine's hull. During launch, a solid propellant powers the missile. After this phase, a turbofan engine takes over, making infrared detection difficult because it does not emit much heat.
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What kind of targets can the Tomahawk missile hit?
The Tomahawk cruise missile is an American-made, low-flying, strategic guided missile that can be launched from naval ships or submarines to strike land targets. It is designed to hit fixed targets such as communication and air-defense sites in high-risk environments. During the opening salvos of an attack, military planning calls for Tomahawks to be used to suppress enemy air operations and defenses. In the Persian Gulf War, Tomahawk missiles destroyed hardened targets like surface-to-air missile sites, command-and-control centers, the Iraqi presidential palace, and electrical power plants.
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How does the Tomahawk missile find its target?
The Tomahawk cruise missile relies on a combination of technologies to accurately strike targets. After launch, it uses inertial and terrain-contour-matching (TERCOM) radar guidance, comparing a stored map with the actual terrain to pinpoint its position relative to the target. The target is identified from a stored image. As the TERCOM scans the landscape, the Tomahawk missile can twist and turn like a radar-evading fighter plane. It can also transmit battle-damage assessment data back to military analysts using onboard cameras.
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What are some advantages and limitations of using Tomahawk cruise missiles in military operations?
The Tomahawk is an American-made, low-flying cruise missile that can strike land targets from naval ships or submarines. It is unmanned, has a long range, and is accurate to about 5 meters (16 feet).
Advantages:
* It can hit fixed targets in high-risk environments, such as communication and air-defense sites, where manned aircraft are at risk.
* It is difficult to detect because it has a small radar cross section, flies at low altitudes, and its turbofan engine emits little heat.
* It can be retasked midflight and transmit battle-damage assessment data.Disadvantages:
* Its subsonic speed of about 550 miles per hour makes it vulnerable to air defenses once detected.
* The missile relies on comparing its onboard map to the actual terrain, so any disruption or manipulation of the terrain could compromise its accuracy.
* The sophisticated guidance systems increase the costs of production and maintenance.3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Tomahawk, American-made low-flying strategic guided missile that may be launched from naval ships or submarines to strike targets on land. It flies at low altitudes to strike fixed targets, such as communication and air-defense sites, in high-risk environments where manned aircraft may be vulnerable to surface-to-air missiles.
The Tomahawk is a long-range, unmanned weapon with an accuracy of about 5 metres (16 feet). The 5.6-metre- (18.4-foot-) long missile has a range of up to approximately 2,400 km (about 1,500 miles) and can travel as fast as 885 km (550 miles) per hour.
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. The missile is powered by a solid propellant during its launch phase. 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. Once it reaches land, the Tomahawk uses inertial and terrain-contour-matching (TERCOM) radar guidance, in which a map stored on the missile’s computer is continually compared with the actual terrain to locate the missile’s position relative to the target. Similarly, the target is identified from a stored image. 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).
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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. Tomahawks may be retasked in flight, possibly circling for a period before their human handlers select another target for them to attack. Tomahawks can also use their onboard cameras to transmit battle-damage assessment data back to military analysts.
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.
Tomahawk missiles were first used in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War as part of Operation Desert Storm, where they destroyed hardened targets (such as surface-to-air missile sites, command-and-control centres, the Iraqi presidential palace in Baghdad, and electrical power plants). The Persian Gulf War also saw the first coordinated Tomahawk and manned-aircraft strike in history. Tomahawks were subsequently used extensively in Iraq to enforce “no-fly zone” operations in the early 1990s and during the Iraq War (2003–11). They were also used in Bosnia (1995), Libya (1996 and 2011), Sudan (1998), Yemen (2009), and Afghanistan (1998 and during the Afghanistan War, which began in 2001).