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The US Navy intends to cut off the production of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which do not conform to the modern standards, according to the Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Plan.
“The Navy once again wants to end production of new Tomahawk missiles, focusing instead on the recertification process for the existing inventory,” the document reads.
The US Defense One news website explained the need to remove Tomahawk cruise missiles as its effectiveness reduces general defense of the country:
“Like any weapon, Tomahawk will ultimately require replacement — and improvements in enemy tech means the need is urgent. The main lines of effort to create a faster, stealthier, more lethal precision strike weapon include the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, and the Next Generation Land Attack weapon, or NGLAW.”
However, the Defense One also pointed out the “increasing need” of these cruise missiles due to the “past success” of these weapons.
The latest “success” of Tomahawk cruise missiles was observed in the massive missile strikes on Syria on April 14, carried out by the US, France and the UK in response a supposed chemical weapons attack in Douma on April 7, allegedly carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
On April 14, a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense Dana W. White stressed that “operation was carefully orchestrated and methodically planned” and the US “successfully hit every target”.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/985130802668294144
This version was refuted by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
On April 25, the chief of the Russian General Staff’s main operations directorate Colonel-General Sergey Rudskoy said that among alleged 105 missiles launched by the US-led coalition only 22 missiles had hit targets in Syria. 71 missiles were intercepted by the Syrian Air Defense Forces and a part of the missiles failed to reach their targets by different, apparently technical, reasons.
A previous occurrence was on April 7, 2017, when the US Navy carried out a missile strike on Shayrat military airfield of the Syrian Arab Air Force. The US launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles.
On April 10, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis claimed that the strike had resulted in a great damage of the Syrian facilities in the area.
Later, the Russian Defense Ministry described the “combat effectiveness” of the attack as “extremely low” adding that only 23 missiles hit the target.
The question arises as to whether the desire to cut off the production of Tomahawk cruise missiles may be connected to the above-mentioned events.
