Elizabeth Leigh
Raytheon and the U.S. Navy worked to test a set of communication updates to a Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile on Feb. 19 in order to determine how it could attack moving targets and connect to command-and-control stations.
Testers launched the Tomahawk with a preprogrammed path and maintained communications with base, as it received updates on the target’s location and sent updates on its own location, Raytheon said Thursday.
Roy Donelson, Raytheon’s Tomahawk program director, said the company and Navy sought to change how the missile’s operators use sensors and communications assets.
Navy Capt. Joe Mauser, the branch’s Tomahawk program manager, said Tomahawk is built to fly inland and strike enemies when U.S. ships and submarines are within 100 miles of a coastline.
The long-range missile is designed to loiter and be redirected to a new target location, Raytheon said.
