By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Famous combat tested US Navy Tomahawk and SM-6 sea-based weapons are now being fired from land as part of an accelerated US Army effort to offer ground commanders expanded attack options.
Army leaders describe this as not “reinventing the wheel” but instead adapting successful weapons for land use as the service returns its mid-range land-fired missile capability following the collapse of the INF Treaty.
In June of this year, Army and Navy units collaborated to shoot of land-variant prototypes of US Navy Tomahawk Missiles and SM-6 interceptor weapons. The tests, at Joint Base Lewis McCord, were successful steps forward for an adapted land-weapon. The tests were a collaborative effort, combining the Army’s Mid-Range Capability Project Office with the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force and the US Navy’s PEO Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons Unit.
“This is SM-6 and Tomahawk land based, and we had our first two successful launches from the system. These were not full-up operational tests, but close to operational tests that gave us confidence to actually go into fielding later this year for the system. So, the units are established and we have launchers,” Mr. Douglas Bush, Assistant Secretary of the Army – Acquisition, Logistics & Technology, told reporters recently according to a transcript provided by the Army.
The US Navy Tomahawk is a combat-tested and highly-upgraded ship and submarine fired weapon which has often been the “first to strike” when it comes to military campaigns, as they can eliminate fixed infrastructure, command and control locations, enemy force concentrations and key weapons systems.
In recent years, the Navy has even upgraded the Tomahawk into a Tactical Tomahawk variant able to track and destroy moving targets at sea by adjusting course in flight. The Block IV Tomahawk can travel at speeds up to 500mph for distances up to 900 miles and operates with a two-way datalink, ISR capability and “loitering” capacity to adjust to emerging targets. It’s likely the Army may ground fire a Tactical Tomahawk to attack moving targets, something which may require some software or fire-control adaptations. The introduction of mid-range land-attack weapons brings new stand-off precision attack capabilities to ground commanders.
The US Navy SM-6 is an equally successful US Navy weapon fired from Vertical Launch Systems on warships as a defensive interceptor weapon able to destroy incoming attacks as part of an integrated layered ship-defense system.
The Navy’s SM-6 has critical offensive and defensive uses as it can integrate with an aerial gateway such as a Hawkeye or F-35 to track and destroy incoming anti-ship missiles from beyond the horizon. The integrated relay system, referred to by the Navy as Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air, has been operational for years now and contributed to Navy efforts to generate new concepts of operation. The Army’s ground-fired SM-6 will likely operate in both a defensive and offensive capacity.
.”I think the Army’s done remarkable work to take two Navy missiles — so, we didn’t reinvent the wheel here, but turn them into a land-based thing, which gives commanders just one more option for attacking difficult land based targets and ships,” Bush said.
President of Warrior Maven- Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
