Tomahawk cruise missiles spearhead U.S. attack on Iran, underscoring long-range naval precision strike capability

Roughly half the length of a standard telephone pole, the Tomahawk flies at the speed of a commercial airliner and can carry a 1,000-pound warhead over a distance comparable to that between Washington, D.C., and Miami. Fired from destroyers or submarines positioned hundreds of miles away, the missiles allow a president to respond to a crisis without sending pilots into contested airspace or deploying ground forces.

The weapon has become a frequent choice for limited military action because it combines precision and flexibility with a relatively small U.S. footprint. Its ability to strike fixed targets with high accuracy reduces the risk of broader escalation.

Presidents from both political parties have relied on Tomahawks in the opening hours of operations, from strikes in Iraq in the 1990s to more recent missions in Syria and other locations. Defense officials and military analysts say the missile’s long range, reliability, and low risk to U.S. personnel make it an appealing first-strike option when the White House seeks to act quickly without triggering a wider conflict.

“Year in and year out, administration in and administration out, it’s the long-range land attack cruise missile that presidents reach for first in a crisis,” Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital. He added that heavy operational demand has strained supply, saying, “We’ve been using them far more frequently than we’ve been producing them.”

Before Saturday’s strike, the missile had been used in June 2025 during a U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Overall, the Tomahawk has been deployed more than 2,350 times.

Manufactured by Raytheon, now RTX, the Tomahawk has been a core element of the Navy’s arsenal since the 1980s and was first used in combat during the 1991 Gulf War. Priced at about $1.4 million each, the missile has an intermediate range of approximately 800 to 1,553 miles and can be launched from more than 140 U.S. Navy ships and submarines.

The Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, or TLAM, is a long-range, all-weather, jet-powered, subsonic cruise missile primarily used by the United States Navy and the Royal Navy in sea-based land-attack missions. Designed in the 1970s by General Dynamics as a low-altitude missile for surface launch, it features a modular structure that supports multiple warhead, guidance, and range configurations.

As the President stated, our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.

The President ordered bold action. CENTCOM forces are delivering an overwhelming and unrelenting blow. pic.twitter.com/B0k5gV4YnU

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 28, 2026

At least six variants and several upgraded versions have been introduced, including conventional and nuclear-armed types, though only non-nuclear, sea-launched versions remain in service as of 2019. The program has evolved through multiple contractors and upgrades, incorporating systems such as GPS and Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation for improved precision.

Block III versions introduced enhanced range and navigation capabilities, while Block IV missiles added improved fuel efficiency, loitering capability, in-flight retargeting, and real-time battle damage assessment through electro-optical sensors and satellite communications. These features have kept the Tomahawk at the center of U.S. military planning for decades.

Ahead of the latest strike, the U.S. military assembled what President Trump had previously described as an “armada” in the region around Iran. The deployment, spread across the Persian Gulf and surrounding areas, underscored a strategy of calculated pressure backed by established long-range strike capability.