Report: No more nuke Tomahawks after all
February 22nd, 2010 | nuclear weapons Submarines Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
STS1 Joseph Halikman inspected a training Tomahawk aboard the fast attack sub Newport News. The nuclear versions, already withdrawn from the fleet, are going away completely, according to a report. // EM2 Xander Gamble / Navy
Japan’s Kyodo News Service is reporting that the U.S. has “informally” notified the government of Japan that it’s going to retire the nuclear-capable variant of the Tomahawk cruise missile, “in line with President Barack Obama’s policy to pursue a world free of nuclear weapons, Japanese government sources said Monday.”
As we discussed back in December, this move won’t take much. According to the Pentagon’s nuke-programs report, the Navy — which is responsible for the U.S. nuke-Tomahawk arsenal — decided on its own initiative not to maintain the TLAM-Ns, because it decided on its own it didn’t want them anymore.
Our phriend Ol’ Phib, however, whence came this story, sees a downside:
TLAM-N has certain advantages over a [submarine launched ballistic missile] when it comes to not scaring the vodka out of our Russian friends when you launch it – in addition to other things that the crazy people behind the cypher door can talk to you about.
How about you? Does a world without nuke Tomahawks make you want to break out in a round of Kumbaya, or should the U.S. keep the ball peen hammer next to the sledge in its strategic toolkit?