Raytheon has said it is working on new technology that will allow ship commanders to revise the Tomahawk cruise missile’s flight path even after it has been launched. This new technology will allow the Navy to hit moving targets, which is a first for the Tomahawk missile.
The Tomahawk cruise missile is already in flight when the call comes in.
Something’s come up. A new, more urgent danger.
The commander makes his own call. The missile is re-directed, placed on its way to the new, higher-priority target.
This ability to alter a Tomahawk missile’s mission in real-time is new, one of many enhancements Raytheon is building into this go-to weapon. Two tests by the U.S. Navy recently proved the missile can receive and respond to new orders while in flight. And there’s another advantage to the new Tomahawk: it now has the longest range of any similar weapon that can be carried on a ship.
“We’re very excited about where the Navy wants to go with Tomahawk,” said Dave Adams, Raytheon’s Tomahawk senior program director.
For the first time, the Navy is considering using Tomahawk against moving targets, an important consideration on the open sea.
“It’s unique in the country’s portfolio, in terms of its very long range and the fact that it’s deployed from ships and submarines,” Adams said. “If you look at everywhere a ship or a sub can go with the range that we have, you literally can cover 90 percent of the world.”
The Navy tests were the next step in the evolution of the Tomahawk missile, a GPS-guided precision weapon that can fly more than 1,000 miles, circle on command and even transmit photos of its target to commanders before striking.
Tomahawk is used by U.S. and British forces to defeat integrated air defense systems and strike high-value, fixed and moving targets.
Read more here from Raytheon.
