What is the Maritime Strike Tomahawk cruise missile?
The Tomahawk cruise missile has been in service since the 1980s but continuously upgraded to the new Block V variants, which includes an anti-ship missile capability.
Richard Thomas
December 15, 2023
Reports that the US Navy will begin operating an anti-surface variant of the Tomahawk cruise missile from its submarines in 2024, known as the Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST), have highlighted the development of a lesser-known variant of the long-serving munition, which entered service in the 1980s.
According to office of the US Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) in 2017 the US Navy issued an acquisition strategy for a series of incremental upgrades to the Tactical Land Attack Missile (TLAM) Block IV to develop an anti-ship capability. The upgrades would develop the Block IV TLAM into the MST variant, to aspirational reach initial operational capability (IOC) in FY2022.
Manufacturer RTX states that beginning in 2020, the US Navy would recertify and modernise the missile, extending its service life by 15 years, and resulting in the new Tomahawk Block V series; the Block V, a modernised version with upgraded navigation and communication; the Block Va which has the ability to strike moving targets at sea, the MST variant; and the Block Vb, which features a joint multi-effects warhead that can hit a more diverse land targets than the standard Block V.
US military services have been keen to introduce the new Block V into their inventories, with a series of contracts providing industrial impetus for RTX and its supplier base.
https://www.naval-technology.com/news/what-is-the-maritime-strike-tomahawk-cruise-missile/
