Oct 23, 2019, 11:39am
The Navy’s Tomahawk Cruise Missile Is Becoming More Lethal, More Versatile
Loren Thompson
One lesson the U.S. Navy has learned in dealing with emergent threats is that it is a lot easier to adapt what you already have to new challenges than start over with a completely new solution.
The Tomahawk cruise missile, carried on 145 U.S. warships, is a striking example of this principle at work. Tomahawk first joined the fleet in 1983 and figured prominently in both Persian Gulf wars, but today’s Tomahawk is very different from the cruise missiles used in those conflicts, and tomorrow’s Tomahawks will be something else again.
Superficially, the weapon doesn’t look much different. It still resembles the “flying torpedo†first imagined by futurists shortly after the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk. But internally, Tomahawk has been repeatedly transformed as new technology and operating concepts added capabilities.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2019/10/23/the-navys-tomahawk-cruise-missile-is-becoming-more-lethal-more-versatile/#79b5c6df71d7
