Tucson Citizen April 03, 2003
Raytheon, Navy in talks to boost output of Tomahawk
By Irwin M. Goldberg, Staff
Raytheon Missile Systems and the U.S. Navy are negotiating on possibly increasing production of Raytheon's newest Tomahawk missile, the Tactical Tomahawk, because a large number of Tomahawks have been used in the war with Iraq.
Cmdr. William Fenick, a Navy spokesman, said, "Coalition forces have used more than 700 Tomahawk (Block III) missiles in this campaign. They had more than 1,000 in theater when operation Iraqi Freedom began. We have replenished that and reloaded several ships to date.
"The operation commander is confident in the weapon and has what he needs to successfully complete the campaign."
But that leaves inventories of the ship- and submarine-launched missile low.
Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson makes both the Tomahawk Block III, which is being used in Iraq, and the Tactical Tomahawk (Block IV), which is still being tested.
The company is working to deliver 192 Tactical Tomahawk missiles to the Navy by August 2005 under a $224.5 million contract issued in January and a $36.1 million contract from October 2002. Deliveries of the new version are expected to begin next year, said Jennifer Allen, a Raytheon spokeswoman.
The Tactical Tomahawk will cost less than half of a newly built Tomahawk Block III, the version being used against Iraq. The reduced cost is due to new technology. It can be programmed with a target before launch and can fly around a battlefield for a couple hours awaiting a new target, which can be plugged in while the missile is in flight. If it doesn't receive a new target, it will attack its default target, Allen said.
Raytheon is expecting a contract for 267 missiles for fiscal 2004, Allen said.
Now, the company is capable of building 38 Tactical Tomahawks a month, Allen said.
"The discussion is, does the Navy need and could Raytheon meet 50 per month?" Fenick said.
"We have responded to the Navy requests to increase capacity to 600 missiles per year (50 missiles per month) if funding became available. We're well positioned to respond to the increased capacity should it be needed," Allen said.
Talks are under way even though the Tactical Tomahawk hasn't completed testing.
Raytheon conducted three successful test flights, in August and November 2002 and last month, Allen said, adding that the U.S. government is conducting its own tests, which are expected to be completed in February 2004.
"The Navy is confident its contractors and its design team from the Navy will work through the necessities to make it a successful component of the Navy missile inventory," Fenick said.
"Although the tests are not complete, we are talking about potential inventory numbers and the timeline of when we could replace our stockpiles."
The Navy has said it plans to spend as much as $2 billion for 1,353 of the weapons.
John Pike, president of defense consultancy GlobalSecurity.org., said Pentagon planning called for a stockpile large enough to handle conflicts in Iraq and, if needed, North Korea, with some in reserve.
"I'm not going to try to second-guess their estimates over time as to how many they would want to have, but I am assuming they are rapidly running out of the number that would be allocated to targets other than North Korea," Pike said. "They basically don't intend to find themselves with a one-war inventory when they're done with Iraq."
The Senate Appropriations Committee recommends $62.38 billion to help fund military operations in Iraq and replenish munitions used in the war.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld requested that $7.2 billion of that be used to replace cruise missiles, smart bombs and other munitions.
Copyright © 2003, Tucson Citizen
