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Is U.S. Military Running Low on Tomahawk Missiles?
Aired March 31, 2003 - 15:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: It was during the first Gulf War in 1991 when the Tomahawk Cruise Missile made it's debut and continues to be a key weapon in this version of the gulf war.
Joining us, retired Navy Captain Alec Fraser. Thanks for being with us.
I guess the big question is, the Pentagon did confirm today that more than 700 Tomahawks have been fired and our sources say that's a third of the inventory.
Is the U.S. Military running low on Tomahawks?
ALEC FRASER, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Quick answer to that is no. I'm not surprised that 700 missiles were shot at the beginning. The purpose of the Tomahawk is to go in before the manned aircraft, take out command and control sites, significant military targets before aircraft have to take pilots in danger. So, that's not surprising.
SAN MIGUEL: He also said, General Stanley McChrystal said they're are constantly resupplying.
How does that happen, especially when we've been talking about supply lines?
FRASER: Tomahawk missiles were 3, 500 pounds. It's not easy it to resupply at sea. We learned in the initial Gulf War to resupply these by pulling a ship into port, doing it pier side. The missiles are flown overseas and loaded on the ships there.
SAN MIGUEL: I mentioned supply lines, but we're not talking about firing these from inside Iraq. These come from Navy destroyers and can also be launched from B-52s.
FRASER: Right. and submarines on top of that. So a wide variety of platforms.
SAN MIGUEL: Now, I understand we have a picture of the business end of the Navy destroyer from the Navy's website. And I want to telestrate over exactly what we're talking about here. If we can run this through the telestrator, we're talking about this part right here with the Tomahawks come out from, right?
FRASER: It's a vertical launcher. This is on the front of a destroyer. Missiles are loaded into vertical canisters, lowered into the slots on the section that you can see on the deck here, and then when it's ready to fire the positioning data is loaded into the computer and then it's shot vertically up into the air.
SAN MIGUEL: What -- we've heard a lot about tactical Tomahawks. Raytheon is transitioning -- the MARCHINI: Raytheon is transitioning from what's called the block 3 to tactical Tomahawks. What's the future of the Tomahawk missile.
FRASER: Block 2, 3, 4 is like going from a 386 computer to a Pentium 4. You're moving from a short range Tomahawk of 500, 600 miles up to one that's larger. You're using one that can target a dozen or so more targets simultaneously, and you can decide en route which target you want the missile to hit. This is still to come, but it's coming very soon. Or the missile can loiter over the top of a target down download a position from GPS and go then it can after target from there.
SAN MIGUEL: So it can just -- it can wait for a target to be input into it. This is the future version we're talking about. And then, once that signal comes from whichever missile launched it, then it can make its run to the target?
FRASER: That's exactly right. And that's a major step forward in how to use a weapon when it can loiter over a target.
SAN MIGUEL: Alec Fraser, thanks you for your time, we appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired March 31, 2003 - 15:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: It was during the first Gulf War in 1991 when the Tomahawk Cruise Missile made it's debut and continues to be a key weapon in this version of the gulf war.
Joining us, retired Navy Captain Alec Fraser. Thanks for being with us.
I guess the big question is, the Pentagon did confirm today that more than 700 Tomahawks have been fired and our sources say that's a third of the inventory.
Is the U.S. Military running low on Tomahawks?
ALEC FRASER, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Quick answer to that is no. I'm not surprised that 700 missiles were shot at the beginning. The purpose of the Tomahawk is to go in before the manned aircraft, take out command and control sites, significant military targets before aircraft have to take pilots in danger. So, that's not surprising.
SAN MIGUEL: He also said, General Stanley McChrystal said they're are constantly resupplying.
How does that happen, especially when we've been talking about supply lines?
FRASER: Tomahawk missiles were 3, 500 pounds. It's not easy it to resupply at sea. We learned in the initial Gulf War to resupply these by pulling a ship into port, doing it pier side. The missiles are flown overseas and loaded on the ships there.
SAN MIGUEL: I mentioned supply lines, but we're not talking about firing these from inside Iraq. These come from Navy destroyers and can also be launched from B-52s.
FRASER: Right. and submarines on top of that. So a wide variety of platforms.
SAN MIGUEL: Now, I understand we have a picture of the business end of the Navy destroyer from the Navy's website. And I want to telestrate over exactly what we're talking about here. If we can run this through the telestrator, we're talking about this part right here with the Tomahawks come out from, right?
FRASER: It's a vertical launcher. This is on the front of a destroyer. Missiles are loaded into vertical canisters, lowered into the slots on the section that you can see on the deck here, and then when it's ready to fire the positioning data is loaded into the computer and then it's shot vertically up into the air.
SAN MIGUEL: What -- we've heard a lot about tactical Tomahawks. Raytheon is transitioning -- the MARCHINI: Raytheon is transitioning from what's called the block 3 to tactical Tomahawks. What's the future of the Tomahawk missile.
FRASER: Block 2, 3, 4 is like going from a 386 computer to a Pentium 4. You're moving from a short range Tomahawk of 500, 600 miles up to one that's larger. You're using one that can target a dozen or so more targets simultaneously, and you can decide en route which target you want the missile to hit. This is still to come, but it's coming very soon. Or the missile can loiter over the top of a target down download a position from GPS and go then it can after target from there.
SAN MIGUEL: So it can just -- it can wait for a target to be input into it. This is the future version we're talking about. And then, once that signal comes from whichever missile launched it, then it can make its run to the target?
FRASER: That's exactly right. And that's a major step forward in how to use a weapon when it can loiter over a target.
SAN MIGUEL: Alec Fraser, thanks you for your time, we appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
