As recently as last summer, the Tomahawk missile was being reported as a key to U.S. military plans, particularly in Syria.
New and improved versions were reported just weeks ago.
This 2012 Raytheon video demonstrates the Tomahawk’s flight path:
Unless something changes, however, the Tomahawk is on the chopping block.
In late February Chuck Hagel announced the administration’s more butter, fewer guns budget, and the Tomahawk missile was chopped, along with many other programs, as reported at the time by Defense News:
Most of the US Navy’s aviation programs take significant hits in the 2015 budget, including the P-8A Poseidon, F-35C Joint Strike Fighter, and MH-60R helicopter, and plans to buy the MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned shipboard aircraft have been shelved for now.
The budget also takes a big bite out of weapons procurement, notably the elimination of Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile procurement after this year….
Weapons procurement showed striking reductions from last year’s plans. Then, the Navy planned to buy 980 Tactical Tomahawks, the primary cruise missile in use throughout the fleet. The new plan shows only 100 missiles in 2015 and none thereafter.
The reduction reflects shifting investment to a new next-generation land attack weapon, said Lt. Caroline Hutcheson, a Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon, who also noted that the current inventory of Block IV Tactical Tomahawks exceeds combat requirements.
Adam Kredo at The Washington Free Beacon calls attention to this development today, Obama to Kill Tomahawk, Hellfire Missile Programs:
President Barack Obama is seeking to abolish two highly successful missile programs that experts say has helped the U.S. Navy maintain military superiority for the past several decades.
The Tomahawk missile program—known as “the world’s most advanced cruise missile”—is set to be cut by $128 million under Obama’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal and completely eliminated by fiscal year 2016, according to budget documents released by the Navy.
In addition to the monetary cuts to the program, the number of actual Tomahawk missiles acquired by the United States would drop significantly—from 196 last year to just 100 in 2015. The number will then drop to zero in 2016.
The Navy will also be forced to cancel its acquisition of the well-regarded and highly effective Hellfire missiles in 2015, according to Obama’s proposal.
The proposed elimination of these missile programs came as a shock to lawmakers and military experts, who warned ending cutting these missiles would significantly erode America’s ability to deter enemy forces.
I’d like to think this is some kind of smart evaluation of military needs and capabilities.
But that would run counter to the reason Hagel was brought on board in the first place, to oversee the scaling back of American military power and retrenchment of U.S. power abroad:
Chuck Hagel has been nominated to supervise the beginning of this generation-long process of defense cutbacks. If a Democratic president is going to slash defense, he probably wants a Republican at the Pentagon to give him political cover, and he probably wants a decorated war hero to boot.
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“The proposed elimination of these missile programs…would significantly erode America’s ability to deter enemy forces.”
…or as Teh Won would say: “Mission Accomplished!”
I have posted it here before but get ready folks.
Obama will attempt to trade away our nuclear arsenal before he is out of office. He does not think it is ‘fair’ for us to have nukes.
Really and the GOP and their sequestration has absolutely nothing to do with this? Delusional
You do realize that the sequester was proposed by Obama’s National Economic Council Director? And that 95 Democrats voted in favor of it in the House? And 45 Democrats voted in favor of it in the Senate? And Obama signed it into law?
So how does that turn into the “Republicans’ Sequester”?
Reading comprehension can be challenging sometimes, eh? The topic at hand is ‘…more butter, less guns…’ so this is about the budgetary choices being made by Barry and his merry band of Marxist Minions. As others have pointed out, the ‘Sequester’ was Barry’s idea in the first place, so put your little Red Herring back in it’s OFA box and try to stay with us.
Oh, I think we could with absolute safety completely gut the “green” bullspit programs, the Muslim out-reach programs, and the various other don’t-have-a-thing-to-do with defense nonsense the Collectivists have larded into our military spending.
The Defense Industry seems to be a bunch of collectivists. The more they fail, the more the are paid. They make some good stuff, but they get paid for the bad stuff, too. They spread their projects in many states and hundreds of congressional districts. By chance?
Why don’t you apply you philosophy to an industry that seems to fit it to a tee?
The sequestration was only 2.3% of the federal budget after Tyrant Obama increased the budget by 25% in one year. As these increases were unrelated to defense we should keep defense spending as is and cut the increases that Tyrant Obama enacted.
Spent a lot of underwater time with this weapon, solid performance, easy to maintain, dependable for operations – this disrupts the submarine and surface force’s over the horizon (OTH) offensive threats in the out-years. Makes no sense, financially or operationally.
and more “butter?” Really????
My bet is not unless it is up……=X
Not so much “butter” as more EBT cards, more food stamps, more disability payments, more unemployment payments, etc.
Corporate handouts, subsudies for the rich and well off, undeserved tax breaks for highly profitable corporations.
If you are going to attack welfare then attack the 900lb gorilla of Corporate welfare
I’ll agree with you there… the ‘food stamps’ program is WAY out of control, and it’s quickly turning into yet another huge Crony Capitalism money pit where the Dim’s buy off voters on the one end and corrupt businesses with ‘free’ government money on the other.
Must do something about the Kenya Kid, ’cause soon OUR NATION will be known as The Eunuch States of Alinsky.
Enough is enough!
We did do something, we re-elected him gladly
Yeah and look what a mess you made in doing so!
If it isn’t already known as. Let’s ask Vlad..
“I’ll have more flexibility to bend over backwards in my second term” – Present Obama to Putin.
Here’s the thing. I don’t necessarily dispute the need for reducing military spending. But if *this* president wants to talk about “shovel ready jobs”, then the US military represents a form of economic stimulus with far more concrete and measurable “bang” for the buck.
I just read where we’re selling F-35s to S. Korea, as well as Japan, the UK, Australia, Norway, Italy, Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Turkey, Israel, and Singapore. Apparently the U.S. can no longer afford them.
No my uninformed friend, it is because our allies went all in to standardize platforms at the inception of the project. Pick up a newspaper every now and again
Your responses indicate that you are on assignment to troll this site. I hope you understand that you will not alter anyone’s views with your obnoxious style. I only write this so that everyone can know that if you continue to do so, it means you are a willful azz.
One of the reasons I like this site is that the prog drone trolls are so pathetically outgunned from a intelligence and rhetorical skills point of view. The puny weakness is strong in this one.
Not quite. Even though the F35 is grossly overpriced, underperforming, and riddled with bugs while being planned to be used for ground-attack roles in which it has no real capacity, it still will be the current state-of-the-art fighter in a few years, able to shoot down four times its numbers in combat. (Which is why China is making twelve times its numbers to fight it, but I digress) As I recall, some of our foreign aid is “Earmarked,” so countries with a lot of small-field needs (S. Korea, Japan, et al) may receive (for example) $10B in aid with $8B marked “To be used ONLY for F35 aircraft purchases.”
Coincidentally, it was revealed today that the reason Obama was so sure Russia was “bluffing” about Crimea was we can no longer read their military communications.
Hmmm, how could THAT have happened.
Yet, some of our slower compatriots still believe Snowden is a hero.
The anti-American socialists and their parasitic clientele elected Obama, and conservatives reelected him by staying home in 2012 (had whites and evangelicals voted in the same numbers as in 2004, Romney would have won).
Now the question is surviving these last 1032 days.
If I could live through 8 years of George Bush you can do the same with Obama, so hang in there sparky!
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/374094/loud-weak-war-victor-davis-hanson
We may all be lucky as to “live” so long.
Tyrant Obama has had a reign of failure and we can see the resulting disasters looming in the near future.
He has proven that he is either incompetent or anti-American in foreign policy. Our enemies are going to take advantage of the remaining 3 years of is rule. Russia has started in the Ukraine. China in the Japanese islands and the South China see. Iran by developing nuclear weapons without the embargo that he gutted. The world situation resembles the pre-WWII days which could result in a new world war due to Tyrant Obama’s incompetence and anti-American actions.
Tyrant Obama has focused like a laser on jobs, killing jobs that is. From his stimulus that promised shovel ready jobs, yet only spend 4% on these programs and the rest was wasted on Tyrant Obama’s supporters. Furthermore, he has waged an unceasing war on the private sector with the EPA and other government agencies. The result is a never ending recession/depression which only looks to be improving because so many people have given up hope. Tyrant Obama’s deficits threaten the economic stability of our country as he has had more deficit spending that all of the other US presidents combined. Right now with extremely low interest rates we spend 25% or our revenue to pay the interest on our debt. When we have to pay normal interest rates this will require that we spend 125% or our revenue on the debt. That will be a disaster.
These are disasters, but the worst thing Tyrant Obama has done are his numerous violations of the constitution. These threaten to cause a civil war. What is the point of congress working out a compromise bill if Tyrant Obama ignores the law and rewrites it by executive order? There is no point and the house is starting to realize it. That is why they refused to consider any changes to immigration while Tyrant Obama remains in office.
My question is whether Princess Running Bare Warren is gonna put up with this outrage against Indian culture.
That smear really hasn’t worked, has it? Warren has become an influencial Senator. She seems to have a particular eye for collectivist Banks. You should be celebrating her.
Maybe you don’t think crony capitalism is collectivist?
so they going to continuously extend the P3 in place of the P-8A?
iirc the P3 was actually better suited for the mission (except for long transit times) than the P8 but I forget a lot the details on that stuff.
Speaking of guns and butter, I think this is where Obama got his idea of “guns and butter”. http://tinyurl.com/lmkklos
Call me naive, but the Tomahawk’s been around for 30 some years so I hope, I really hope, the pentagon is replacing it with some cool stuff they can’t talk about.
Whoops! First, I hit the down vote by mistake. SORRY!
Second, I’m on board with the wish for something “cooler,” but it’s hard to imagine anything more impressive than a Tomahawk. Their “cool” factor is over the top.
But, as the saying goes, don’t trust anybody (anything) over 30. 🙁
The missiles being retired are being replaced, but mostly by projects that are over budget and screwed up four ways from Sunday, with delivery times presently estimated to be several years after the retirement is complete, if at all. The Tom. replacement (ACM) is probably the least critical and the closest to being deployable, but of course it is bigger, heavier, and can’t use the same launchers…
One key thing to remember is a missile or plane that has been “In production for X years” is not the same beast at the end of the production cycle as the beginning. The A-10C is a modern glass-cockpit electronic beast that an 80’s pilot might not recognize inside as being the stone axe that his aircraft was. (although the same highly effective rugged body and controls are still there)
Ezzzactly.
And how old is the B-52…???
But that would run counter to the reason Hagel was brought on board in the first place,
No, it doesn’t, actually. Chuck was brought on board to give “conservative Republican” cover to Obysmal’s plan to completely gut our military capabilities.
Where would you righties be without your daily freshly baked conspiracies?
But NOBODY ever confused Hagel with “conservative”.
And, especially after his confirmation hearings, nobody will ever confuse him with the term “bright”.
Like Kerry at State, this is all like a bad dream for the vital interests of the United States.
Can we recycle missile parts into food stamps? We need more of those printed up pronto!
It is not like they are going to decom all the destroyers,
subs and cruisers that launch Tomahawks. The missile will be
in inventory for at least the next decade. There are at least
3500 in stock, perhaps more. We are just not buying anymore
at present. You are aware the missile is subsonic and there
are several supersonic cruise missiles out there close to
full development, but none revealed by the US.
Am I the only person who thinks the cuts to the tomahawk and hellfire programs are in there as a way of getting extra money out of congress to fund them separately.
Yeah, Let’s spend 2 million a pop for a missile that delivers a single payload that is larger than modern precision munitions have to be. Then let’s put it on a 2 Billion dollar submarine that can only carry a handful. That’s cost effective.
Meanwhile the Taliban spend 50 bucks on some fertilizer, fuel oil, a detonation cap, some wire and a switch.
Then when they blow up our soldiers, lets skimp on treatment for TBI and disability pay because otherwise we won’t be able to pay for more Tomahawks or $135 million per copy F-35s. Anyone see a pattern here?
Yes, there’s an obvious pattern here. Liberals continue to undermine our ability to defend our country by attacking those with the will to do so, all the while hypocritically enjoying the very freedom provided by those they attack….but most everyone already knows that.