US military get rid of the Tomahawks
The Barack Obama administration has decided to continue a massive reduction in weapons programs. According to the draft defense budget for the Navy on the 2015 and 2016 years, the United States can abandon the famous Tomahawk cruise missiles.According to the published plan for the purchase of new weapons for the next few years for the US Navy, the Pentagon will acquire the Tomahawk 2015 cruise missiles in 100 (for comparison, it is planned to buy 2014 missiles of this type in 196), and in 2016 the deliveries of these missiles will be stopped.
"Tomahawks" are one of the main offensive weapons of the American fleet. They were used by America in all major conflicts over the past 25 years, including in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, during the invasion of Yugoslavia in 1999 and in Iraq in 2003.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, only during an operation in Libya in 2011, did American ships inflict Tomahawks around the territory of a North African country around 220, and the reduction was a surprise to the Pentagon. It was planned that the arsenal of "Tomahawks" will be replenished until the introduction into service in the 2020-ies of the new generation of cruise missile LRASM, which is being developed with varying success by Lockheed Martin. Meanwhile, if the United States wages wars with the same scope and frequency as the last decades, the "Tomahawks" at the disposal of the US Navy should end by the 2018 year.
It is noted that the Pentagon plans to continue reducing spending on weapons and the size of the army. Within five years, it is expected that only ground forces will be reduced to 440-450 thousand people - their numbers have never dropped below the level of 490 thousand people since the end of World War II. It is planned that the Navy will also reduce the purchase of new weapons at the expense of F-35 fighter jets, Boeing P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft and one coastal combat ship.
The decision of the White House to stop the purchases of Tomahawks caused bewilderment among defense lobbyists. Director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for American Seapower, Seth Cropsey, said that Obama’s decision “does not make sense” and could lead to loss of influence and military dominance at sea.
“To shorten the 'Tomahawks'' is like running with a white flag on a high pole and shouting: 'We are ready to be trampled down,'" the Washington Post quotes Cropsi.
US Army Retired Lt. Col. Steve Russell also told the media that it would be impossible to replace Tomahawks: conventional ship cruise missiles such as the Harpoon (RGM-84) cannot be attacked on fortified positions on land.
The Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile (TACTOM) was developed in the USA in the 1970s. There are a large number of modifications of this missile for aircraft and ground-based, but its main operator is the Navy. TACTOM range - up to 1500 km, it can carry a nuclear charge. Its Soviet and Russian counterparts are the cruise missiles KS-122 and X-55.
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