View Full Version : US Army now in the Tomahawk cruise missile business
...with the "Typhon" system. They borrowed the Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles from the Navy, along with the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (normally installed on warships). They're joining the USMC in this role. Of course, the USAF had ground-launched Tomahawks in Europe 40 years ago, but that didn't go over well politically.
"The U.S. Army says it has demonstrated the operational capability of its newest ground-based missile launcher with the system's recent successful firing of a Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile. This follows a test launch of a multi-purpose SM-6 missile earlier this year from what is officially known as the Typhon Weapon System. The service currently has one so-called Mid-Range Capability battery equipped with Typhon, which has four trailer-based launchers and other supporting equipment.
The Army's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) announced the Tomahawk launch on June 28, but the actual test had occurred the day before. This comes just over six months after the service accepted delivery of the first Typhon launchers and other components of its first Mid-Range Capability (MRC) battery from Lockheed Martin."
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/army-fires-tomahawk-missile-from-its-new-typhon-battery-in-major-milestone
SomeOtherGuy
07-03-23, 15:28
So this is cool, but is the Tomahawk still relevant against a country with Russian or Chinese air defense systems?
SM-6 seems a lot more interesting, if for no other reason than speed and flexibility.
Averageman
07-03-23, 15:40
So this is cool, but is the Tomahawk still relevant against a country with Russian or Chinese air defense systems?
SM-6 seems a lot more interesting, if for no other reason than speed and flexibility.
I think in numbers the Tomahawk is still very relevant.
Air Defences biggest weakness is still turning their system on, I would imagine making them a heck of a target for Air.
My Guess would be that it's a game of chicken at some point where someone has to committ to their intentions. The Chinese at this point seem very much willing to play.
Diamondback
07-03-23, 16:29
Why didn't they just dust off the old GLCM system which was basically the same flippin' thing forty years ago before INF banned it?
If SM-6 is anything like the older SM-2 airframe it has a remarkable amount of role performance in one package with the right adaptation: SAM, surface-to-surface antiradar, ASAT/ABM (F-106 launch, Project Spike that led to the F-15/ASM-135 ASAT), air-launch antiradar (AGM-78 STARM) long-range heavy-hitter antiair (AIM-97 Seekbat)... could probably use one of the ARM's as a base for an AWACS-killer too with not much work.
SM-6 probably impacts with a lot of kinetic energy, even if the warhead duds out.
Diamondback
07-03-23, 16:54
SM-6 probably impacts with a lot of kinetic energy, even if the warhead duds out.
Kinda like an AIM-47 or AIM-54 Phoenix had either had terminal-guidance... even on kinetic energy alone, a half-ton missile impacting at Mach 5 will happily tear a bomber apart on impact, as happened with an AIM-47 test launch from a YF-12 Blackbird against a drone B-47. (The bomber's entire tailgroup was torn off by the impact.) Give it the right payload and a high altitude launch, and you could probably make a long-range bunker-buster out of it--I'd probably do that with a zoom-climb to lob it, like how a prof who used to fly F-106's had noted that if they'd wanted to they could've made improvised ground attacks by zoom-climbing and lobbing concrete blivets suborbital.
Hell, read an article earlier today that the USAF is working in conjunction with the Navy for B-52's (and probably the Bone also) to deliver stand-off JDAM-guided mines.....hello China! They can drop these things from high-altitude (not the wavetop level previously required), it deploys wings once released, and can track ~ 50 miles to it's target area. There it lies in wait for an intruder, then goes after it. Probably more a "dormant" smart torpedo than a mine like we usually think of them.
SomeOtherGuy
07-03-23, 18:18
Two thoughts come to mind:
1) Is the SM-6 a better missile than the ones available in the Patriot system? Could one of these launchers "hand off" an SM-6 to either a Patriot system (ideal) or an Aegis system (obviously more likely)?
2) Could these trailer systems be temporarily installed on surface ships that don't otherwise have VLS capability? I'm thinking LCS and San Antonio classes, for starters.
Diamondback
07-03-23, 18:26
Hell, read an article earlier today that the USAF is working in conjunction with the Navy for B-52's (and probably the Bone also) to deliver stand-off JDAM-guided mines.....hello China! They can drop these things from high-altitude (not the wavetop level previously required), it deploys wings once released, and can track ~ 50 miles to it's target area. There it lies in wait for an intruder, then goes after it. Probably more a "dormant" smart torpedo than a mine like we usually think of them.
Relevant: https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2023/06/usaf-b-52-conducts-long-range-offensive-mine-warfare-test/
Two thoughts come to mind:
1) Is the SM-6 a better missile than the ones available in the Patriot system? Could one of these launchers "hand off" an SM-6 to either a Patriot system (ideal) or an Aegis system (obviously more likely)?
2) Could these trailer systems be temporarily installed on surface ships that don't otherwise have VLS capability? I'm thinking LCS and San Antonio classes, for starters.
SM-6 IS the teeth of the Aegis system. Aegis refers specifically to the radar and attached command-and-control systems, and since F-35s can call in SM-6 launches from cruisers, extending that to air-launch models could be spectacular with an F-35 "shot caller" directing launches from a B-52 "spear carrier."
As for trailer-on-ship, I see absolutely no reason why not other than maritime environmental hazards and needing to bolt 'em down REAL good. Hell, you could bolt 'em down on commercial container ships as floating SAM-traps, kind of like how once we figured out that the Japanese had a particular fetish for our battleships we started bolting extra flak guns onto every possible square inch of deck.
What is old is new. Time for the USAF to start handing out GLCM patches again to ground based security teams who like living in the field.
This feels more like 'RTX found another customer', but overall works.
As for the BMC2 picture on integrated air/missile defense stuff... it's exactly as large a festival of excrement as you're thinking, but we at least have some structure that eventually the smart people in the room will be allowed to run with, after the current one crumples under its own weight.
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