By Gary Robbins
U-T San Diego
U-T San Diego
The San Diego-based destroyer Sterett launches a Tomahawk cruise missile during a successful test fire off Southern California in June 2010. The San Diego-based destroyer Sterett launches a Tomahawk cruise missile during a successful test fire off Southern California in June 2010. US Navy
President Barack Obama is considering a military strike against Syria to punish President Bashar al-Assad for allegedly allowing his military to use chemical weapons against civilians during that country’s civil war, which reportedly has claimed more than 100,000 lives.
Such a strike would likely involve the use of Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, one of the most technologically advanced weapons in the U.S. arsenal. Tomahawks are widely stocked on American warships, including the type of cruisers, destroyers and Los Angeles-class submarines that are homeported in San Diego Bay. Tomahawks also are stocked by Britain’s Royal Navy.
The Nimitz carrier strike group is in the northern Persian Gulf region. It has been operating with the destroyer Preble and cruiser Princeton, both which are homeported in San Diego. The Truman carrier strike group is in the Mediterranean, operating with ships from Norfolk, Virginia.
Here’s a snapshot of the missile:
BGM-109 model Tomahawk cruise missile (Raytheon)
TOMAHAWK CRUISE MISSILE
Manufacturer: Raytheon
Cost per missile: $1.45 million
Length: 20′ 6” (with booster)
Diameter: 20′ 4”
Wingspan: 8′ 9”
Speed: Subsonic (roughly 550 mph)
Operational range: A Tomahawk is an all-weather missile that can travel from 810 miles to 1,550 miles, depending on the variation of the missile used.
Conventional weapons payload: 1,000-pound bomb. Navy surface ships no longer carry a version of the Tomahawk that featured a nuclear warhead.
Flexibility: A “Tactical Tomahawk” locates its target by drawing data from everything from ships and unmanned aerial vehicles to foot soldiers and tank crews. A Tomahawk also can “loiter” in the air for tactical reasons, and it can be redirected during flight to alternative targets.
Stockpile: The U.S. has around 3,500 Tomahawk missiles of all variants, including hundreds that are collectively carried at any one time by San Diego-based submarines and surface ships. San Diego ships typically get their Tomahawks at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station in Orange County.
photo The San Diego-based destroyer Milius fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at targets in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003. US Navy
photo The San Diego-based destroyer Milius fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at targets in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003. US Navy
Service history: Tomahawk cruise missiles were first used during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. American ships and submarines launched 288 Tomahawks during the first phase of combat. The missiles have been used at least a dozen times since then. The largest assault occurred during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, when more than 725 Tomahawk were launched at Iraqi targets.
The most recent assault occurred in 2011 when U.S. and British vessels collectively launched 221 Tomahawks at 20 or more targets in and around Tripoli and Misrata, Libya. The assault was part of an eventually successful campaign to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Sources: US Navy, Defense Department, Raytheon, Wikipedia
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