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The US Navy has an upgraded Tomahawk: Here’s 5 things you should know

what company makes tomahawk cruise missiles

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Navy test-fired its new Block V Tomahawk from the destroyer Chafee in December, introducing the newest generation of the venerable Tomahawk cruise missile to its arsenal.

The modifications are designed to bring the sub-sonic cruise missile into the era of great power competition . Why is this Tomahawk different from all other Tomahawks, and can this old Cold Warrior keep up in the era of hypersonic missiles?

Here’s five things to know about the Block V:

1. Increased capabilities. Raytheon’s Tomahawk Block V, when fully realized in its Block Va and Block Vb varieties, will be expected to hit surface ships at Tomahawk ranges – in excess of 1,000 miles – with the integration of a new seeker. It also will integrate a new warhead that will have a broader range of capabilities, including greater penetrating power.

Tomahawk’s range is especially important in the Asia-Pacific, where China’s rocket force has extraordinary reach with its DF-26 and DF-21 missiles, with ranges of 2,490 and 1,335 miles respectively, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The missiles are destined not just for the VLS launchers of surface ships but also on attack submarines . Read more here:

what company makes tomahawk cruise missiles

The US Navy is moving to put more ship-killer missiles on submarines

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2. More survivable. The first iteration of the Block V upgrades the missile’s communication and navigation systems. This is about making it tougher to counter and detect electronically, said Bryan Clark, a retired submarine officer and senior fellow at The Hudson Institute.

“It has greater electronic hardening to be able to work through jamming more effectively,” Clark said. “The hardening and the electronic countermeasures they’ve put into it make it harder to find and target with radar, and that improves its survivability.

“They’ve incorporated a lot of survivability into Tomahawk over the years, this takes it a step further to make it less susceptible to jamming of its seeker or its communications. But it could, perhaps, also counter enemy radar that might be used to target it and shoot it down.”

In 2017, Raytheon’s Tomahawk program manager told reporters at an event at the missile plant in Tucson, Ariz., that the navigation system upgrades will ensure the missile can strike targets even if GPS is taken down .

3. Subsonic is a feature, not a bug. With all the emphasis on supersonic and hypersonic missiles and with the improvements in air defenses, that might make Tomahawk seem like a fuddy-duddy by comparison.

But there are good reasons to keep producing the Tomahawk, even with its slower speeds.

“The benefit of the sub-sonic missile is range,” Clark said. “Being sub-sonic means its also able to travel at a more fuel-efficient speed. So, the fact that the Tomahawk can travel more than 1,000 miles is a function of the sub-sonic speed. To get that kind of range out of a super-sonic missile you’d need something much larger.”

what company makes tomahawk cruise missiles

Sailors on the destroyer Barry train on planning a Tomahawk mission. (Navy)

4. It’s cheap. Well, relatively so. The missile has been able to stay at the $1 million price range, which is on the low end for missiles. Raytheon’s supersonic SM-6 can reach speeds of Mach 3.5 – with future iterations believed to be capable of reaching hypersonic speeds – but cost more than four times as much per shot and have less range. That’s the Tomahawk’s key differentiator, said Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain and analyst with Telemus Group.

“The key capability of Tomahawk is the cost.” Hendrix said. “It can be purchased in larger quantities and you can afford to lose some to defensive capabilities even as you penetrate. That’s one of the reasons why Tomahawk is going to be in the inventory for a while to come, even as it brings back that longer-range anti-ship capability that we’ve been missing for some time.”

Tom Karako, an expert in missile technology with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, agreed that cost is a big advantage of Tomahawk, especially for low-end missions.

“As long as they can keep them to about a million dollars per shot, the Navy is going to want those all day long,” Karako said. “The next time the President says to the Navy, ‘Hey, go schwack this terrorist training camp,’ they’re going to want Tomahawks.”

5. It’s all in the mix. The key to thinking about a sub-sonic cruise missile is understanding how it fits into a mix of weapons, Karako said. Not everything is going to be hypersonic or even supersonic, nor does it have to be, he argued, but the cost per salvo make it attractive as part of a varied and complex threat to present an adversary.

“The question is, ‘What’s the going to be the mix between hypersonic things and things that are supersonic and subsonic?’,” he said. “That, I think, is the right question. As long as you have standoff, subsonic and supersonic are going to be part of the equation.”

“Even for the high-end fight, I don’t think the hypersonic stuff will fully replace sub-sonic stuff. It might just mean you shoot your sub-sonic stuff earlier, let them fly for a while and everything arrives at the same time as part of how you structure an attack.”

what company makes tomahawk cruise missiles

The destroyer Dewey conducts a tomahawk missile flight test while underway in the western Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by MC2 Devin Langer)

Clark, the Hudson analyst, agreed that the mix was important, saying that even with the arrival of faster missiles, the Tomahawk has a place.

The combination of the SM-6, which has a surface strike mode, the new 100-plus-mile ranged anti-ship Naval Strike Missile bound for the littoral combat ships and next-generation frigate, and the Block V upgrades on Tomahawk, will give the Navy’s venerable birds a place in the service’s vertical launch system cells for some time to come, Clark said.

“Between Tomahawk Block V, the SM-6 and the NSM, the Navy has a collection of attack weapons that they are happy with,” he said, adding that a long-running effort to develop a next-generation land-attack weapon has lost some of its urgency.

The development of hypersonic missiles could, however, push out the Tomahawk down the road as the technology gets more advanced and of a size compatible with the Navy’s ubiquitous Mark 41 VLS launcher.

“What’s happening in parallel is in the development of hypersonic missile that are a smaller form factor than the boost-glide weapons that are coming to maturity now,” Clark said. “And if they can get it down to being able to fit in [the Mark 41], then that could provide the Navy a next-generation capability that is more survivable and has a shorter time of flight.

“So I think this combination of missiles the Navy has now, combined with the fact that the hypersonic weapons are coming along a little further out, means the Navy is going to stick with what it has potentially even longer than it had originally anticipated.”

David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.

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Raytheon Receives $171M Tomahawk Missile Contract Upgrade

Photo of Inder Singh Bisht

The US Naval Air Systems Command has awarded Raytheon a $171 million contract modification to a previous Tomahawk missile deal.

The modification exercises the option to deliver 111 full-rate production Tomahawk Block V missiles to the US military: 50 to the US Army, 48 to the US Navy, and 13 to the US Marines by November 2025. 

This army and the marines will receive the missiles for the first time.

Tomahawk for Army, Marines

The marines want to use the missiles from ships, shores, and islands and have been developing land-based launchers for the missiles. 

The army wants the missile for its Mid-Range Capability Weapon System (MRC) being developed to take on the growing range and complexity of Chinese and Russian artillery. 

The MRC is intended to bridge the capability gap between the army’s Precision Strike Missile (about 300 miles or 483 kilometers maximum range) and the developmental Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon system (about 1,725 miles or 2,776 kilometers maximum range).

The Block V is capable of in-flight updates. Moreover, the missile’s improved navigation and communication systems make it harder to detect and jam. 

The version will be available in two sub-variants: the Va to target moving vessels, and the Vb, with an advanced warhead to strike “hardened” land targets.

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Tomahawk at a Glance

tomahawk

Tomahawk Development

The U.S. Navy began its development of sea-launched cruise missiles in 1972. 2 The Tomahawk was designed to fly at subsonic speed while maintaining a low altitude, making it difficult to detect on radar. It uses tailored guidance systems to maneuver while at such low elevations.

There were three original Tomahawk designs, the nuclear-tipped TLAM-N, the ground-launched Gryphon, and the conventional TASM.

BGM-109G Gryphon

In late 1970s, the U.S. Navy sought a precision land attack cruise missile capable of a much smaller CEP. Two Block II versions were produced; the TLAM-C and the TLAM-D.

Service History

The Tomahawk was first deployed in combat in the 1991 Gulf War in Operation Desert Storm, with the first salvo launched from the USS Paul F. Foster (DD 964) at Iraqi targets. 18 Overall, the mission achieved initial success.

However, before GPS guidance was implemented, the Tomahawk faced serious navigation issues in 2003’s Operation Iraqi Freedom. Due to the indistinct desert terrain in region, the missile’s TERCOM system was not adequate to guide the missile to its targets in Iraq. 19 Approximately ten Tomahawks drifted off course and crashed (”clobbered”) into the ground in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran in the initial phase of Iraqi Freedom. 20

  • “Tomahawk Cruise Missile,” United States Navy Fact File, August 14, 2014, http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=2200&tid=1300&ct=2
  • “Tomahawk Cruise Missile,” United States Navy Fact File, August 14, 2014, http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=2200&tid=1300&ct=2.
  • Sam LaGrone, “West: U.S. Navy Anti-Ship Tomahawk Set for Surface Ships, Subs Starting in 2021,” USNI News , February 18, 2016, https://news.usni.org/2016/02/18/west-u-s-navy-anti-ship-tomahawk-set-for-surface-ships-subs-starting-in-2021.
  • “Tomahawk Long-Range Cruise Missile,” Naval Technology, http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/tomahawk-long-range-cruise-missile/.
  • “RGM/UGM-109 Tomahawk,” in IHS Jane’s Weapons: Strategic 2015-2016, ed. James C. O’Halloran (United Kingdom: IHS, 2015), 219-223.
  • “General Dynamics/McDonnell Douglas BGM-109G Gryphon” National Museum of the Air Force, April 26, 2011.http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=18194.
  • Missile Defense Project, “Tomahawk,” Missile Threat, Center for Strategic and International Studies, September 19, 2016, last modified June 15, 2018, https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/tomahawk/ .
  • Fuller, Malcolm. “Tomahawk/RGM/UGM-109B/C/D/E” Jane’s Weapons: Naval. December 17, 2012.
  • Department of the Navy, Naval Vessel Historical Evaluation – Paul F. Foster Final Determination (Washington, DC: 2013), https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Portals/103/Documents/TeamShips/SEA21/InactiveShips/Historic/2013/EDD964-Paul-F.-Foster-Final-DOI.pdf.
  • “The Tomahawk Missile’s First Mission Was Over…Iran?,” War on the Rocks, April 6, 2015, https://warisboring.com/the-tomahawk-missile-s-first-mission-was-over-iran/.
  • Jeffrey Lewis, ”Why the Navy Should Retire TLAM-N,” Arms Control Wonk (blog), December 13, 2009, https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/202560/why-the-navy-should-retire-tlam-n/.
  • “What is a Tomahawk Missile?” History.com, April 7, 2017, https://www.history.com/news/what-is-a-tomahawk-missile.
  • NBC News, “U.S. Launches Missiles at Syrian Base Over Chemical Weapons Attack,” NBC News, April 7, 2017, http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-launches-missiles-syrian-base-after-chemical-weapons-attack-n743636.

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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.

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what company makes tomahawk cruise missiles

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.

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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.

In August it was reported that RTX , formerly Raytheon, secured a $124.2m contract worth to enhance the capabilities of Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST) missiles for the US Navy. The developmental MST seeker suites are a component of the weapon’s recertification process, currently underway with the Low-Rate Production Three initiative.

what company makes tomahawk cruise missiles

In 2022, RTX, then Raytheon Technologies, was awarded a $217.1m fixed-price-incentive, firm-fixed-price contract for the full-rate production of Block V Tactical Tomahawk missiles, to be delivered to the US Navy, US Marine Corps, and US Army.

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Further back, in August 2019 Raytheon received a $349m contract for phase two of the MST Rapid Deployment Capability to improve the Tomahawk cruise missile system.

The Tomahawk is a key weapons system manufactured by RTX, which has sought to maintain its relevance in the evolving battlespace through spiral development and upgrades. As a result, RTX garners a considerable share of the global missile market, partly as a result of the famed TLAM.

According to GlobalData’s “The Global Missiles & Missile Defense Systems Market 2023-2033” report, 22.0% of the North American missiles and missile defence systems market is owned by RTX, which is projected to be the second largest shareholder in the region.

International appeal of the Block V

Asia-Pacific countries such as Japan and Australia have procured Tomahawk Block IV missiles, while in Europe the UK will likely operate them from the Type 26 City-class frigates, currently in build. The UK Royal Navy has operated the TLAM from its Astute -class nuclear-powered attack submarines for a number of years.

However, legacy operators in recent years have moved to upgrade existing Block IV stock to Block V, either through recertification or acquisition of new missiles.

Japan planned to upgrade all eight of its Aegis destroyers to install Tomahawk cruise missiles, and Australia requested a sale of $895m for Tomahawk missiles from the US to boost their maritime capabilities and improve interoperability earlier this year.

what company makes tomahawk cruise missiles

Indeed, in November this year the US State Department made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to the Government of Japan of Tomahawk Weapon System and related equipment for an estimated cost of $2.35bn. The request was for up to 200 Tomahawk Block IV All Up Rounds and 200 Tomahawk Block V AURs, along with weapon control systems.

Earlier, in March this year the US approved the possible FMS of 200 Block V and 20 Block IV Tomahawk missiles to Australia, with a deal valued at $895m . 

In May 2022, the UK announced that its stock of Block IV TLAM munitions were to be upgraded to the Block V variant for specific use in the Astute-class submarines. The Block V, according to UK Defence Equipment and Support, an arm of the Ministry of Defence, would have a longer range than the Block IV at up to 1,000 miles, and also has updated in-flight communications and target selection.

The Netherlands has also confirmed that it would acquire the Block V Tomahawk for use in its De Zeven Provinciën -class frigates.

Any acquisition of the MST for countries such as the UK would add a useful anti-surface warfare system to the inventory, particularly as the development of next generation anti-ship missiles, such as the Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon (FC-ASW), with the UK and France, are someway off being fielded.

With the Block V, and through it the Va and Vb variants, likely to remain in service for more than a decade and even up to the 2040s, this would provide vital development time for countries seeking next-generation ASW systems.

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On the evening of July 6, 2017, staff from the Museum removed the U.S. Navy’s Tomahawk cruise missile from display in our  Space Race gallery. The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) will borrow the missile on a 10-year loan for a new gallery that is scheduled to open there later this year.

For the past 30 years, the Tomahawk hung from the ceiling just a few dozen feet from the German V-1 flying bomb , or “buzz bomb,” that saw action in Europe during World War II. The V-1 and the Tomahawk, variants of which are still in service in the Navy, frame an important episode in the history of missile development in the United States. The recent deinstallation of the Tomahawk provides an opportunity to recount some of the highlights of this fascinating story of technological evolution.

Staff on a lift work to lower a missile attached to the ceiling.

Our Tomahawk is a prototype vehicle that the Convair Division of the General Dynamics Corporation built and tested on four occasions from 1976 to 1978. Launched from surface ships and submarines, operational missiles flew at 885 kilometers per hour (550 miles per hour) and used sophisticated terrain-hugging radar to cover a range of about 2,414 kilometers (1,500 miles). Capable of carrying conventional explosives or a nuclear warhead, the Tomahawk represented the state-of-the art in pilotless aircraft technology after it entered service in the 1980s.

It had not started out that way when the U.S Army Air Forces brought back downed V-1s from Europe and re-engineered them for use in combat late in World War II. The Army abandoned these plans in favor of using limited resources for other conventional weapons deemed more urgent for the war effort. The Navy, however, studied the V-1 and built a duplicate version called the JB-2 Loon for testing on submarines. From 1945 to 1950, Loon cruise missiles flew off the decks of submarines, but their poor accuracy and unreliability prevented their entrance into the active inventory. The Navy canceled the program and moved on to the more sophisticated Regulus I cruise missile . The first operational nuclear-armed missile capable of being launched from a submarine, the Regulus I entered service in 1954 and remained on alert until replaced by the solid-fuel Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile in the early 1960s. 

Grainy, black and white photo of a missile taking off a submarine.

With the introduction of the Polaris, cruise missiles disappeared from the Navy in favor of long-range ballistic missiles, only to return in the 1970s with the Tomahawk. Unlike the Loon and the Regulus, which were cumbersome and slow to launch, the advanced radar and turbofan engine technology available in the 1970s made the Tomahawk an especially versatile and effective weapon system. President Ronald Reagan thought so, and he re-activated four World War II-era Iowa -class battleships (the Missouri , New Jersey , Wisconsin , and Iowa ), and the Navy fitted their already formidable weapons arrays with Tomahawk missile batteries. 

Battleship with guns firing on each side.

The Air Force followed the same strategy as the Navy in the 1950s, developing cruise missile technology until a series of technological breakthroughs in rocket propulsion and warhead design prompted an abrupt switch to long-range ballistic missiles, such as the Atlas, Titan, and Minuteman. Unlike the Navy, however, the Air Force kept a hand in cruise missile technology. Early systems, such as the Matador, Snark, and the ambitious Navaho, lived on in newer operational versions like the Hound Dog, which flew aboard B-52 long-range strategic bombers .  Then, in the 1970s, the Air Force debuted the Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) that bore a close resemblance in performance and capabilities to the Tomahawk.   Like the Tomahawk, the ALCM is still in the Air Force inventory today.

While the Tomahawk is on loan to the National Museum of the American Indian, visitors to the National Air and Space Museum can view our rich collection of cruise missiles on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia . Visitors can see the JB-2 Loon , the Regulus 1 , the Matador , and the test and operational versions of the Air Force’s Air Launched Cruise Missile . And do not forget to visit the National Museum of the American Indian to see the Tomahawk when it goes on display. 

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The U.S. Finally Sold 400 Tomahawk Missiles to Japan. Here's Why.

Tokyo has been trying to buy the weapons for years.

uss laboon fires a tomahawk land attack missile

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans to purchase 400 Tomahawks on Monday. This capability would become operational by 2026-2027. Already, Japan had set aside 211.3 billion yen ($1.55 billion USD) to got to such a purchase, which will proceed via the U.S.’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. A 2019 U.S. order of Tomhawks, also known as TLAMS, averaged a price of $1.35 million per missile, but there will surely be ‘overhead’ training and equipment costs involved in introducing the missile into Japanese service.

That’s only part of the $37 billion Tokyo plans to spend by 2026 on standoff-range counter-strike weapons. The Tomahawks are effectively a stop gap until a forthcoming new surface-attack version of the indigenous Type 12 anti-ship missiles with range extended 750-900 miles enters service. This Type 12 Kai missile would have wider wings, allowing it to fly higher and thereby maximize range, while sporting a reduced radar cross-section to reduce losses to air defenses.

At least 2,193 BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired in combat since entering service in 1983. Powered by an F107 turbofan engine, the latest Block IV and V models have a range exceeding 1,000 miles, and can blast targets with a massive half-ton of explosives. Former nuclear-armed BGM-109A and BGM-109 Tomahawks have been retired, however.

Using a combination of inertial navigation and terrain contour-mapping, a TLAM can land within 10 meters of a designated target, or .1 meter if assisted with GPS. These weapons approach their targets at a maximum speed of 567 miles per hour, usually skimming at an altitude of only 100-165 feet to delay visibility on radar.

While the Tomahawk isn’t as stealthy or fast as some modern successors, it’s been heavily improved over the years. The Block IV model can now transmit video imagery while traveling to target, perform maneuvers to evade defenses while in transit, loiter overhead waiting for a signal to attack, and can be retargeted or instructed to abort the attack midflight—options that might reassure Japanese officials.

The latest Block V model re-introduces anti-ship capability in a subvariant called the Block Va Maritime Strike Tomahawk, integrating a radar seeker that enables it to home in on moving ships. There’s also a Block Vb with an advanced JMEWS warhead capable of bunker-busting penetrating strikes on underground missile silos and WMD facilities.

So far, the United Kingdom has been the Tomahawk’s only foreign operator, employing them from Royal Navy submarines. However, Canadian CSC frigates and Australian Hobart -class destroyers are also planned to eventually deploy these long-range land attack weapons.

Tokyo’s inquiries on purchasing Tomahawks back in 2013 were initially coolly received due to fears of aggravating China. However, given worsened US-China military tensions—particularly over Taiwan, which Japan also seeks to aid—and reinvigorated U.S. Japanese security ties, the Biden administration was much warmer to the idea while negotiating the Tomahawk sale in the fall of 2022.

One question remains the choice of launch platform, as air-, sea-, submarine- and land-based options reportedly were considered. The cheapest option would be land-based trucks, but warships and aircraft would effectively expand the range and possible approach vectors of Japan’s Tomahawks. Presently, reports suggest they’ll begin deployment on Japan’s powerful destroyers, which already come with the same Mark 41 Vertical Launch Systems used by U.S. Navy ships to launch Tomahawks and many other types of missiles.

Japan’s military also is reportedly planning to build a ‘test boat’ to study equipping Japanese submarines to fire Tomahawks. Unless Japan builds a new class of cruise missile submarines with vertical launch cells, these would have to be launched horizontally from torpedo tubes, permitting only a low-volume attack. Still, stealthy submarines can launch attacks from unexpected directions, confounding air defenses.

Offense: the best form of defense?

Post-World War II, Japan’s armed forces have been legally forbidden from using force outside of self-defense of Japanese soil, even in event of an attack on nearby allies. It has thus avoided procurement of weapons systems like aircraft carriers deemed to have mostly offensive missions. However, increasing tensions with North Korea and China’s rapidly improving military have complicated Japan’s self defense stance.

Both China and North Korea possess large arsenals of land-based ballistic missiles (and cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles) that would could be unleashed to destructive effect against Japan in event of a high-intensity conflict. Notably, should the U.S. come into conflict with North Korea or China, Japanese airbases hosting U.S. military aircraft would probably come under attack—a scenario that may cause Tokyo to retaliate militarily.

Despite upgrades to Japanese air defense, including huge warships dedicated to ballistic missile defense using SM-3 missiles , likely some attacks would get through and potentially wreak great destruction. In a recent simulation of an attempted Chinese invasion of Taiwan, missile attacks on Japanese bases destroyed hundreds of American and Japanese combat aircraft on the ground.

In response to this threat, there have been increasing calls in Tokyo to field a “counter-strike capability” that could put China and North Korea’s missile launchers at risk. This is the sort of weapon that Japan has traditionally eschewed, because it means directing attacks on the soil of another country—but it’s hard to adhere to that standard when modern surface-to-surface missiles can inflict so much damage even without resorting to nuclear warheads.

Headshot of Sébastien Roblin

Sébastien Roblin has written on the technical, historical, and political aspects of international security and conflict for publications including 19FortyFive, The National Interest, MSNBC, Forbes.com, Inside Unmanned Systems and War is Boring. He holds a Master’s degree from Georgetown University and served with the Peace Corps in China. You can follow his articles on Twitter . 

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The Mirror US

US military releases dramatic footage of missiles being fired at Houthi targets

D ramatic footage released by the US military shows American warships launching a barrage of missiles at Iranian-backed Houthi targets in the Red Sea.

The USS Gravely, USS Carney, and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower were among the ships involved in the attack.

The video shows missiles being fired from the USS Gravely and USS Carney, as well as a fighter jet taking off from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower. The US said these attacks were aimed at "imminent threats" to their ships in the Red Sea.

US Central Command confirmed they had carried out another strike "in self-defense." They targeted a Houthi land attack cruise missile and four anti-ship cruise missiles, which were ready to launch against ships in the Red Sea.

READ MORE: Moment US ships launch missiles to destroy Houthi targets as all-out war fears grow

On Twitter, Centcom announced: "On Feb. 4, at approximately 5:30 am (Sanaa time), US Central Command forces conducted a strike in self-defense against a Houthi land attack cruise missile." They added: "Beginning at 10:30 am, US forces struck four anti-ship cruise missiles, all of which were prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea."

A statement read: "US forces identified the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined they presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region."

"These actions will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy vessels and merchant vessels."

Tensions are high in the Middle East, with 36 Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen being hit by the US and UK on Saturday. This came shortly after Iraq warned that the Middle East was "on the brink of the abyss."

Click here to follow the Mirror US on Google News to stay up to date with all the latest news, sports, and entertainment stories

American officials reported that Tomahawk cruise missiles, paveway bombs reaper drones, fighter jets and Navy destroyers were used in the strikes. The targets included Houthi weapon launchers, radar sites, drones and buried weapons facilities at 13 locations.

This is the third wave of attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen in the past two weeks. These strikes came hours after the US launched a wave of retaliatory airstrikes on more than 85 sites in Iraq and Syria following the killing of three American soldiers in Jordan.

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The US has not ruled out direct strikes on Iran. Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Adviser said at the weekend the attacks are "not the end" of US action in the region. When questioned whether the US had taken strikes directly on Iran "off the table" he said the president is "determined to respond forcefully to attacks on our people".

Meanwhile, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said there were 48 airstrikes, stating: "these attacks will not deter us from our... stance in support of the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip."

strikes

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