The United States Department of State approved the sale of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Australia. The deal will amount to almost $1 billion.
What is known
United States Navy do not plan buy Tomahawk missiles in fiscal year 2024, but that doesn’t mean Raytheon will sit idle. Japan has previously announced plans to buy 400 cruise missiles worth $1.6 billion. Now the “country below” is in the queue.
Australia will be able to purchase 200 Block V Tomahawk missiles and 20 Block IV missiles. The deal is valued at $985 billion. The contract will also include the supply of additional equipment.
Raytheon’s cruise missiles will be installed on the Hobart-class destroyers. Tomahawk will allow ships to hit targets at a distance of over 1800 km, and a feature of the Tomahawk Block V is the ability to change targets right during the flight and strike at moving objects at sea.
The Tomahawk will be useful to Australia in the region, where China continues to build up its missile capabilities. The Celestial Empire, in particular, has DF-21 and DF-26 missiles, which can hit targets at a distance of 2,150 km and 4,000 km, respectively.
Australia has announced plans to acquire Tomahawk missiles as early as 2021. Then Canberra also announced plans to receive high-precision AGM-158 JASSM Extended Range air-to-surface cruise missiles and AGM-158C LRASM anti-ship fighters. Both, by the way, are developed by Lockheed Martin.
In addition, do not forget that Australia is involved in the development of the rocket PrSM to replace ATACMS. The Increment 1 version will be able to hit targets at a distance of 500 km, which is 200 km more than the ATACMS. In the future, the range will be increased to 650 km and possibly up to 1000 km.
Source: Defense News
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