Australia joins elite club with first Tomahawk missile launch
The Australian Navy announced the first launch of the RGM-109 Tomahawk TLAM cruise missile. Australia is the third country in the world to have this weapon in its arsenal. What capabilities do they offer?
For a long time, the only users of Tomahawk missiles were the United States armed forces and the British Royal Navy. At the end of the 20th century, Washington allowed a close ally to arm its Astute-class nuclear submarines with Tomahawks.
Australia has now joined the small group of users of this weapon. On 9 December 2024, at Greenwich Mean Time, the Australian Navy reported the first launch of a Tomahawk—the missile was launched from the launcher of the Hobart-class destroyer HMAS Brisbane (DDG 41) and hit a container-sized target on an American missile range.
The Australian statement is more than just another report of a successful test of one of many weapons. With the RGM-109 Tomahawk missiles, Australia—together with the United Kingdom and the United States as part of a global AUKUS alliance—has gained exceptional capabilities.
Thanks to the new missiles, its navy can now strike with great precision targets as far as 1,500–2,000 kilometres away (the exact range of the current version of the missile is not publicly disclosed).
Tomahawk – a superweapon of the end of the Cold War
The Tomahawk missile is a unique weapon. Although it was not the first cruise missile, it was the first to offer a combination of long range and high accuracy. This was all the more impressive as the missile was designed in the 1970s as a substitute for ballistic missiles, whose accuracy at that time was measured—in the best case—in hundreds of metres.
Since the SALT disarmament treaty limited the number of ballistic missile carriers, the Pentagon came up with an idea to circumvent these restrictions. The solution was supposed to be a weapon with different characteristics, not covered by the treaty’s provisions, yet capable of delivering a nuclear warhead over a very long distance—a long-range cruise missile.
Introduced into service in 1983, the Tomahawk proved to be a versatile weapon. In the 1980s, an entire family of these missiles was developed—with nuclear warheads (TLAM-N), conventional warheads (TLAM-C), and cluster warheads (TLAM-D), launched from land (BGM-109), water (RGM-109), underwater (UGM-109), and air (AGM-109, although this variant did not enter service).
A missile that "sees" the surroundings
It was distinguished not only by its range—then reaching hundreds of miles—but also by the ability to fly accounting for the terrain's profile. The missile’s navigation system was so precise that the Tomahawk could fly at an altitude of just a few dozen metres, making it difficult to detect and destroy.
This was possible because, in addition to inertial and satellite navigation, the Tomahawk used TERCOM navigation and—from the Block II variant—DSMAC. With TERCOM navigation, the missile determined its position by scanning the terrain height it flew over and comparing the results with its own map.
DSMAC navigation refined this by adding image recognition to the height scanning, so the missile compared the image seen through its camera with images obtained via satellite reconnaissance.
As a result, Tomahawks could navigate precisely, flying so low that—despite the lack of stealth features—they were very hard to destroy, and their accuracy in the final stage was further enhanced by satellite navigation or their own active radar (in the anti-ship TASM version).
The renaissance of Tomahawks
The end of the Cold War and a period of international easing brought a reduction in the Tomahawk arsenal. The numerous family of missiles was eventually limited to the sea-launched version, launched from naval and submarine platforms, armed with a conventional warhead—the RGM/UGM-109 TLAM missiles remained in service.
As it turned out, this was a mistake—currently, the Pentagon is returning to the land-based version of the Tomahawk, testing, among others, the land-based Typhon launcher or the Marine Corps’ unmanned ROGUE Fires system, which in the NMESIS version is to launch Tomahawks. Furthermore, the missile—though it has been around for nearly half a century—is still being developed.
The current variant of the Tomahawk—Block V—has, among other features, increased range, a more penetrative warhead, and an improved guidance system with infrared sensors and passive electromagnetic emission sensors. Work is also underway to enhance the missile’s stealth capabilities and its new propulsion system.
Washington is also increasingly viewing allies’ requests to possess such a powerful weapon favourably. Years ago, even its export to Israel was blocked, but now—besides the countries in AUKUS—efforts to acquire Tomahawks have succeeded in the cases of Japan and the Netherlands.
These missiles are also planned to be sold to Canada in the future, which wants to arm its 15 River-class destroyers with Tomahawks. Their construction is set to begin in 2025.
