The Global War on Terrorism has increased the requirements for precision tactical weapons. The U.S. military now stands on the threshold of achieving the capability to strike time-sensitive targets (TSTs) that will ensure its military dominance well into the 21st century. The Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program demonstrated a capability to strike such targets in Afghanistan. Supported by the key tenets of Sea Power 21, the Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System (TTWCS) is ready to prove itself in an even more dynamic fashion.
The previous generation of Tomahawk land attack missile (TLAM) provided precision first-strike firepower against targets spread over large geographic areas. A theater asset, the Advanced Tomahawk Weapons Control System (ATWCS) allowed mission commanders to destroy targets and decapitate enemy command and control (C2) capabilities. This next generation of Tomahawk, TTWCS, provides tactical readiness, faster response time, firing platform mission-planning capability, and the post-launch redirection of missiles. These capabilities, in conjunction with a more flexible and responsive command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) architecture makes tactical Tomahawk the preferred weapon system for response to emerging high-value targets.
Force Multipliers
The previous generations of the Tomahawk program confined the targeting of missiles to a single pre-planned target. Determining whether the target was actually destroyed was dependent on post-strike satellite imagery or human assets. The tactical Tomahawk system provides mission commanders with the capability to target, plan and execute missions, gather intelligence, and retarget.
While TTWCS can still carry out preplanned missions, one of its most innovative features is the capacity to plan and execute a mission onboard the firing unit (FRU) within minutes of tasking. Not only does this provide the mission commander with the ability to delegate planning and tasking for multiple missions to several firing units, but the timeline from receipt of raw intelligence to time of launch is significantly decreased.
The post-launch execution (PLE) capability of TTWCS is what makes it an outright tactical weapon system. The earlier generation of Tomahawk was a fire-and-forget weapon system with functions that allowed it to abort its mission if it had a less than ideal probability of kill. The new Tomahawk system builds on this capability, but goes far beyond.
Imagine a scenario in which a firing unit launches a multi-missile salvo against a set of targets. The first missile hits its target. Another missile enters a loiter pattern, circling within a given area, en route to a planned target. That missile flies over the primary target and takes a digital picture, relaying the image back to the firing unit or tasking authority. If the primary target was not destroyed to the degree required, the FRU then selects the missile in a loiter pattern, whose target is of a secondary value, and redirects it to the primary target. Subsequent overpasses and digital imagery are used to determine target destruction and any other missiles are redirected to remaining targets.
Another scenario for which the system is particularly suited is one in which intelligence indicates an emerging threat along the flight path of a missile en route to its target. Planners, having anticipated such an emerging threat, created the Tomahawk mission with pre-planned multiple outcomes. After receiving tasking to alter the missile's route around the threat, the missile controller can issue an In-flight Mission Modification Message (IMMM) that diverts the missile around the threat and on to its original target. This is the future of Tomahawk strike.
Tomahawk Strike Network (TSN)
The TSN is a satellite network that allows designated missile controllers and strike controllers to communicate with missiles in flight. Designated by the Tomahawk strike coordinator, these nodes monitor the missile's health and status messages and transmit IMMMs to the missile upon direction by the tasking authority. Via these messages, the missile controller can order the missiles to perform several actions. They include:
Request Health and Status Messages: This option allows the controller to request from the missile an update on its estimated distance and time to target, probability of kill, and the satisfactory passing of various built-in-tests. All of these factors can then be used to determine if a particular missile is a good candidate for redirection.
Flex Mission: Like the previous generation of Tomahawk, TTWCS can execute pre-planned missions. However, new to TTWCS, is the capability to incorporate Multiple Outcome Missions into those preplanned missions. This feature allows the missile controller to reprogram a given missile to an alternate outcome, for example to avoid an emerging surface-to-air missile (SAM) threat.
Retarget: Similar to a Flex mission, a retarget allows the operator to plan a new mission segment for a given missile in flight. This will update the flight path and target parameters for the missile according to new intelligence on emerging targets.
Aimpoint Update: This option is ideal for tasking of time-sensitive targets. An IMMM is transmitted to the missile, which updates its target location. The missile flies immediately from its current position straight to the target without regard for threat data, terrain elevation, or other airspace control measure systems.
Battle Damage Indication Imagery: This capability provides planners with the ability to capture digital imagery along the flight path of the missile. This data can then be used to plan follow-on missions or to retarget a missile already in flight.
Sea Power 21: Enablers of Success
The CNO has outlined three areas that ensure the success of Sea Power 21. All three of these factors-Sea Trial, Sea Warrior, and Sea Enterprise-are at work in bringing TTWCS to fruition. Official testing began in October 2001 on board USS Stethem (DDG-63). The operational test launch concluded the testing in September 2004 and the first ship to deploy with it was USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62). The next operational version is due by 2006 and promises further improvements.
As part of Sea Trial, the weapons system was approved and installed for deployment while the final version was completing development. While it may seem premature to install an unproven system, the purpose is to get the system into the hands of the operators, who then gain valuable experience using it. This experience and expertise has made them subject matter experts whose advice and guidance has been a critical factor in the continued development, installation, and employment of TTWCS. Having witnessed this process first-hand, it is clear that the experience and advice of Stethem's strike team has improved the system's capability.
Successful implementation of Sea Warrior fundamentals lies at the heart of the tactical Tomahawk system's success. TTWCS relies on near real-time intelligence for it to be most effective. While some weapons systems depend on intelligence and communications capabilities that are insufficiently developed to support them, the intelligence capability required to effectively employ TTWCS is available. As the capabilities of the system become better known throughout the joint community, the need to introduce measured target data and threat intelligence at a lower level in the chain of command will be realized.
Finally, Sea Enterprise will ensure that the Navy's dollars are being efficiently spent on systems that bring a maximum benefit to the warfighters and the United States. The previous generation of Tomahawk came at a price of approximately $700,000 per missile, a hefty price, yet one well worth the precision and firepower. The latest generation of missile is far more capable than its predecessor and comes at half the cost. As production increases, the average cost will decrease, bringing the cost of a single missile to approximately $300,000. In addition, TTWCS joins legacy computer consoles and commercial off-the-shelf equipment, bringing long-range naval strike capability at a fraction of the cost of legacy systems.
The Road Ahead
In the 21st century, the U.S. military will not rely as much on overwhelming firepower as it will on overwhelming information. The connection between warriors, weapons, and sensors will only increase as more is invested into networks such as the Global Information Grid, being developed by the Department of Defense, and the Tactical Targeting Network Technology, being developed by the Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Both of these networks have the potential to provide command and control nodes with near-instantaneous information. With this in mind, TTWCS is a weapon system that not only provides commanders realistic options for employment with current intelligence capabilities, but also allows employment tactics and procedures to evolve as our intelligence capabilities improve.
That does not diminish the importance of increased lethality in the future battle space. The system's capability to plan missions in a fraction of the time required for traditional Tomahawk missions and its ability to redirect firepower based on emerging battlespace intelligence, gives mission commanders the capability to execute plans while retaining flexibility for change in a variety of circumstances.
Transferring control of formerly operational weapons to a carrier strike group or expeditionary strike group commander is a significant paradigm shift. However, the strike group commander is exactly the person in a position to direct the employment of this tactical weapon. A carrier strike group commander, armed with the proper intelligence and measured data, authorized to task firing units and re-direct missiles in flight under pre-determined conditions, would represent a true measure of Sea Power 21's success.
Lieutenant (JG) Byrnes graduated from Boston University with a BA in sociology and a concentration in political sociology. He serves as Strike Warfare Officer on the USS Stethem.