Tomahawk's popularity grows - Australia will buy 200 Block V missiles with a launch range of more than 1800 km, which can change targets in flight

The United States Department of State approved the sale of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Australia. Sum

The deal will be close to $1 billion.

What is known

The US Navy has no plans in 2024financial year to buy Tomahawk missiles, but this does not mean that Raytheon will sit idle. Earlier, Japan announced plans to buy 400 cruise missiles worth $1.6 billion. Now the “country below” is in line.

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 cruise missiles willinstalled on 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.

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Tomahawk will be useful to Australia in the region whereChina continues to build up its missile capability. 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 announces plans to acquire missilesTomahawk back in 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 acceptsparticipation in the development of the PrSM missile 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.