Our illustration shows the guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) firing a Tomahawk land attack missile on 7 April 2017. This class of missile is a long-range, all-weather, subsonic cruise missile.

Introduced by McDonnell Douglas in the 1970s, it was initially designed as a medium to long-range, low-altitude missile that could be launched from a surface platform.

The Tomahawk is a highly accurate, GPS enabled precision weapon that has been used over 2,000 times in combat, and flight tested more than 500 times. The latest variant (Tomahawk Block IV) includes a two-way satellite data-link that enables the missile to be retargeted in flight to pre-programmed, alternate targets. The Block IV design was initiated as both a cost savings and a capability improvement effort.