Cruise missiles launched from eastern Mediterranean against Assad have been favoured by US military for decades owing to long range and pinpoint accuracy

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A mainstay of US warfare for more than 20 years, the Tomahawk cruise missile had been considered the most likely weapon for any strike by the Trump administration against the Syrian military. And so it eventuated.

The US launched its surprise attack on an inland airbase near Homs early on Thursday morning, with 59 of the missiles deployed from two naval destroyers.

USS Ross and USS Porter were in the eastern Mediterranean sea off Syria’s western coast. The attack was in retaliation for the suspected chemical attack in Idlib province on Tuesday.

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More than 6.25 metres long (20ft) and weighing 1,590kg (3,500lb), the Tomahawk land-attack missile is billed by the US navy as “an all-weather, long range, subsonic cruise missile” able to be launched from either ships or submarines.

They commonly carry warheads of up to 454kg (1,000lb), and are designed to fly at low altitudes towards even heavily defended land targets with extreme accuracy.

Their chief advantage in warfare is that they are unmanned, guided by GPS to targets more than 1,000 miles (1,600km) away at high subsonic speeds of 550mph (885km/h).

In the attack on the Syrian airbase the targets were said to be aircraft shelters, ammunition bunkers and radar installations.

Their manufacturer, Raytheon, describes the Tomahawk as a “modern, mature, powerful” weapon capable of “precise strikes on high-value targets with minimal collateral damage”. Each unit costs reportedly about US$1.5m, with an upgrade process under way. “Modernising Tomahawk is quick and affordable way to provide warfighters with the capability they need to stay ahead of the threat.”

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These sophisticated cruise missiles have been a critical part of US warfare since the Gulf war in 1991, when they were deployed in combat “with immense success”, according to the navy.



The UK became the first foreign country to acquire the missiles from the US with a supply agreement signed in 1995.

Tomahawks were also instrumental in the Nato-led effort against the Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, and have gone on to be pivotal in the US fight against Islamic State in the Middle East.

In September 2014 the Pentagon launched 47 cruise missiles from two ships – one in the Gulf and one in the Red Sea – as it expanded its air war against Iraqi militants in Syria.

Earlier that year the Obama administration had proposed halting Tomahawk production as part of cutting defence spending in 2014, when the navy had 4,000 missiles stockpiled.

According to the Washington Post they were most recently deployed by the Pentagon in October from destroyers in the Red Sea aimed at three coastal radar sites in Yemen.

In late December,Raytheon was awarded a US$303.7m contract to produce 214 Tomahawk Block IV cruise missiles and spares for the US navy. The work was scheduled to be complete by August 2018.