Navy Ready to Accept First Block V Tomahawk from Raytheon

ARLINGTON,
Va. — Raytheon Co. has completed the first recertificated Tomahawk cruise
missile, one that it modified to the Block V configuration, a Navy official
said.

The missile
is one of the first five Block VI Tactical Tomahawk missiles that have been
inducted into the recertification process, which takes missiles at the midlife
15-year mark for overhaul and modernization. 

Capt. John
Red, the Navy’s Tomahawk program manager, speaking to reporters Jan. 15 at the
Surface Navy Association symposium here, said that all Block IVs will be
converted into Block Vs.

All Block Vs
will feature a new data-link radio and antennas and navigation system. The
Block Va version also will feature a new seeker kit to hit moving targets and
will be called the Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST). The Block Vb version will
feature the Joint Multi-Effects Warhead System.

Red was not
at liberty to discuss the MST’s seeker in detail but described it as a “multimode
seeker with the ability to discriminate targets.”

The Tomahawk
missile first entered combat in January 1991 in Operation Desert Storm. More
than 2,000 have been fired at hostile targets over three decades.

Red said the
remaining Block III Tomahawks, which first entered service in 1994, are being
withdrawn from use and are being “demilitarized.”