US President Donald Trump has hinted that he may send Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, which would give President Volodymyr Zelensky the ability to attack Moscow with precision munitions capable of mass destruction.
Trump, who will meet with Zelensky at the White House later this week, said on Tuesday that he knew the Ukrainian leader wanted the weapons.
Because of their long range, accuracy and low cost compared to manned combat aircraft, the Tomahawk has long been seen as a primary weapon in the Pentagon‘s arsenal, the NYT writes.
The United States has used more than 2,300 Tomahawks in combat over more than four decades. The latest versions cost approximately $2.5 million each.
What is a cruise missile?
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The cruise missile is powered by a small jet engine and has wings that create lift, allowing it to fly like a self-guided aircraft. According to historical data from the US government, development of the Tomahawk began in the early 1970s.
The US military first used them in combat during the 1991 Gulf War and have used them in dozens of conflicts since then.
How far can they fly?
More than 1000 miles.
How far is Moscow from Kyiv?
About 500 miles.
What are some of the benefits of Tomahawk?
When in cruise mode, they can fly low over the ground, making them harder to detect by radar.
They also fly relatively fast: 550 miles per hour, or roughly 70 percent of the speed of sound.
And perhaps most useful for Ukraine, the United States has hundreds of them.
How are rockets launched?
Like any cruise missile, the Tomahawk needs some help before it can start flying towards the target on its own.
The US Navy’s Tomahawks use a solid-propellant rocket engine to launch the missile up to about 450 meters above the surface. The rocket engine retracts, the rocket wings unfold, and the jet engine air intake opens, allowing the Tomahawk to begin flying like an airplane.
How could Ukraine let them go?
In 2024, the U.S. military deployed a new ground-based launcher for Tomahawks and other naval missiles called the Typhon, which is essentially a standard 12-meter shipping container concealing four missile tubes that rotate upward to launch.
The Army first test-fired the Tomahawk from this launch vehicle in 2023.
These would be the longest-range weapons ever given to Ukraine by the US.
The Pentagon developed the Typhoon fairly quickly after the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between Russia and the United States, which banned land-based cruise missiles, collapsed in 2019.
Army soldiers first deployed the Typhoon in the Philippines in 2024 as a show of force to China. The launchers were later sent to Australia for exercises in July and to Japan in September.
Will Ukrainian troops need a lot of training to use them?
Not quite.
In the summer of 2022, the Ukrainian military quickly mastered another US mobile launch system called HIMARS, which fires guided missiles at a range of over 70 miles and ATACMS missiles at a range of up to 190 miles. Although the Typhon system is different in some ways, it also requires soldiers to enter data into a fire control computer before firing.
The Pentagon would also likely send the equipment needed to gather the flight planning information the missile needs, or would have to provide Ukraine with data packets on targets in Russia.
What do Tomahawks carry?
Typically a warhead with an explosive equivalent of about 400 pounds of TNT.
There are also cluster versions of the Tomahawk, the most common of which carries 166 small, damage-prone bombs. This type was last used in December 2009 during a covert and failed US attack on suspected al Qaeda training camps in Yemen.
The other variant, which remains classified, is designed to temporarily disable an adversary’s electrical grid by releasing small canisters of carbon fiber that coat electrical power lines and short out transformers and other equipment.
The Navy’s latest generation of Tomahawk missiles will also be able to attack moving ships at sea.
A variant armed with a nuclear warhead was retired in 2013, according to the Congressional Research Service.
How does the Tomahawk find its targets?
The Tomahawk was originally designed to use data fed into its guidance computer before launch – maps of the terrain to verify its location, as well as digital photographs of the target.
Later versions included GPS guidance and radio antennas that allowed the missiles to be redirected to a new target after launch.
They are maneuverable weapons that can change their course to bypass obstacles such as enemy anti-aircraft systems, buildings or mountains before reaching their target.
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