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- Newsgroups: sci.military
- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!hubcap!ncrcae!ncrhub2!ciss!law7!military
- From: CBTCC%CUNYVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
- Subject: Re: Air launched tomahawk?
- Message-ID: <C17w8D.FsF@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>
- Sender: military@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM (Sci.Military Login)
- Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center
- References: <C143uI.3F3@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>
- Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 18:48:13 GMT
- Approved: military@law7.daytonoh.ncr.com
- Lines: 54
-
-
- From CBTCC%CUNYVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
-
- Apostolos Karmirantzos <karmira@natinst.com> says:
- >
- > I was watching the special news report about the tomahwak attack in Iraq,
- >and I noticed they said in more than one occasion that tomahwaks can be
- >launched from submarines and ships only. Isn't there an air-launched version
- >also? I am almost sure that I have seen photograps
- >but I can't remeber if it was just a prototype or a full developed system
- > Thanks in advance
- > Lakis
- >
- >[mod note -- the USAF had (maybe still has) an Air Launched Cruise Missile
- >(ALCM). It is not based on the Tomahawk. With all the START talks, I
- >don't know if the ALCM was a victim of the reductions or not.
- >
- >ALCM was deployed with some B-52 units.
- >
- >Steve]
- >+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
- >| Karmirantzos Apostolos |E-mail: karmiran@natinst.com |
- >+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
- >
-
- Source: Bonds, R. (Ed.). 1989. _The Modern US War Machine: An encyclopedia
- of American Military Equipment and Strategy_. Crown Publishers, NY.
-
- "The General Dynamics AGM-109 was one of the chief versions of the Tomahawk
- strategic nuclear cruise missile, first tested in air drops from P-3 Orions
- and A-6 Intruders in 1974. It differed from the ship/submarine/GLCM
- versions in having no rocket boost motor or launch capsule/box. Main
- propulsion, at first a J402, switched like other versions to a Williams
- F107 turbofan in competition with the Boeing AGM-86B as the ALCM for SAC.
- When the Boeing missile was chosen, Tomahawk was recast in different roles,
- and eventually in 1981 the naval versions were all terminated, chiefly on
- cost grounds. GLCM continued as a tactical weapon for the Air Force,
- and a completely new version, MRASM (Medium Range ASM) was launched in 1981
- as a non-nuclear cruise missile for wide use by the Air Force arming many types
- of aircraft beginning with the B-52 and the F16".
-
- *****Several paragraphs deleted for space*****
-
- "AGM-109I is a dual-role weapon proposed to the Navy for use by A-6E squadrons.
- It has a large unitary warhead and both DSMAC II {digital scene-matching
- area-correlation} and IIR (imaging IR) guidance for either anti-ship or land-
- attack missions".
-
- Well. It looks as though the air-dropped Tomahawk existed, at least as a
- test version. This source is pretty old- does anyone have any info on whether
- this critter ever saw the light of day as a production model?
-
- Chris
-
-