Talk:Tomahawk (missile)

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Launch Weight[edit]

what is the total launch weight? does the missile mass figure include the warhead as it seems to make a big difference


Question[edit]

Can someone get an answerfor me? What is the future of BGM-109 Tomahawk? Is there any improvements that can be made on it?

Spain[edit]

I think Spain has acquired a number of tomahawk recently so I think the Spanish Navy should be mentioned as operator (as July 21st 2005, see http://www.elpais.es for the news)

At the present (Dec 2006) Spain (as the Netherlands) is in the process of adquisition, but don´t have them onboard any warship (or at least don't have notice). More links: Defensa article, Terra article. Please anyone update the article if the criteria is that authorized countries are listed, or whenever the Tomahawks are delivered and loaded.

Acquiring the missiles is one thing. For the surface ships, the launching system will be the VLS Mk 41 system. For Foreign sales, these systems are restricted down to capable of launching supporting only the missile type the navy has at that time. Therefore the Mk41 system will need some modification to support the missile in addition to the Tomahawk Weapon Control System being added to the ships. To my knowledge that is not yet done. Suspect eventually the newer German ships will acquire and add this capability.

Operational history - Gulf War[edit]

The information is not totally correct. I was there onboard the Paul F Foster at the time as a Tomahawk FC. First of all the Foster did not launch the first salvo, it launched a single missile fired as part of the first salvo (from various ships). I also realize that it states the Foster was the first, as per the cited source. But the official reply given by the USN, and as told to us at the time when they higher ups and manufacture reps came on board, was that the Paul F Foster was the first to fire a Tomahawk from the Persian Gulf, and that the submarine was the first to fire a Tomahawk from the Red Sea. Due to time zone differences and from different satellites, they were officially unable to determine which of the two was the first one fired.

Unofficially, we (all us Tomahawk FC's onboard the Foster) knew otherwise. When they told us that, we all turned and looked at each other but did not say anything at the time. As we knew better. The first missile to be launched was supposed to be from the USS Missouri to honor the battleship. Followed briefly seconds later by the submarine in the Red Sea to give sub's their due.

However, shortly before the start of the war, when ships that had Tomahawks were warming up the missiles needed in the first salvo by stabilizing the onboard gyro and uploading all the plan data into the missile etc, we received a radio call. The USS Missouri missile failed to warm up, and they would not be able to bring another Tomahawk up online in time, so had sent out a call if any other ship had a missile it could use for that specific plan and target. Our ship the Paul F Foster responded that we could. We had one missile that was scheduled to be towards the end of the first wave salvo, and another one scheduled early in the second wave shortly after. Both of those Tomahawks were already warmed up and stabilized and we were just about to start uploading all the plan data into the second one. But it being in the second wave, we had time to use another Tomahawk for that scheduled launch so it could be used to be the first missile fired in the Persian Gulf salvo. By the time all that got approved from upper command for us to take the place, etc, and for us to receive the plan number and get that uploaded into the missile, and us actually firing the Tomahawk, we ended up firing it actually a bit late. Can not recall specifically, but something like half a minute later than it was scheduled to be. As it was a several hour flight, this was not big issue. However, we knew we launched it a bit late, and now instead of it being launched a few seconds before the submarines, likely was fired a few seconds after the submarines was. And we were pretty sure the upper command knew this as well but were being generous. Kevin "Hawk" Fisher (talk) 13:50, 4 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]