Program Executive Office (Cruise Missiles and Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)

Commercial: (301) 757-6316

Fax: (301) 757-6343

DATE: 4 May 1998

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Congress last week approved a Navy request to shift 1998 Tomahawk procurement funding to develop a lower cost, more tactically capable follow-on of the Tomahawk cruise missile. "Tactical Tomahawk" will meet fleet requirements for deep strikes against military targets well into the 21^st century.

Tomahawk cruise missiles, dubbed "weapon of choice" by two Presidents, proved their performance capabilities against targets in Iraq and Bosnia from standoff positions up to 1000 miles from designated targets. In order to meet Navy requirements for a long-range tactical standoff missile for the future, the Navy requested that Congress reprogram $23.1 million Fiscal Year 1998 Tomahawk production funds into Research and Development for Tactical Tomahawk, a request now approved by all four Congressional Committees.

At a cost of approximately $569K per missile, half that of today’s Tomahawk, performance capabilities of Tactical Tomahawk will be even greater than those of the present Tomahawk Weapon system. The Tactical Tomahawk system will include an onboard camera for battle damage assessment, in-flight retargeting and launch platform mission planning in order to provide significant warfighting improvement to one of the nation’s preeminent weapons systems.

The Navy plans to reach low rate initial production of the Tactical Tomahawk in the fall of 2001, with initial operational capability planned in the spring of 2003.

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