The U.S. Navy is looking to upgrade up to 96 Tomahawks with seekers capable of supporting anti-ship strikes in the service’s latest effort to bring Maritime Strike Tomahawks into the fleet.
Between 35 to 96 Tomahawks are set to receive maritime seeker suites and processing capabilities that will bring the missiles up to the Navy’s latest variant of the Cold War-era low flying long-range cruise missile, according to a solicitation from Naval Air Systems Command. In 2020, the Navy announced that all Tomahawks would be upgraded to the Block V standard and test fired the new cruise missile variant for the first time.
Alongside an updated navigation and communications suite, the modernization initiative includes the subvariants Block Va Maritime Strike Tomahawk and Block Vb Joint Multiple Effects Warhead System. These variants bring back Tomahawk’s previous anti-ship capability and a new multi-purpose warhead.
The requirement also covers the development and production of new Maritime Strike Tomahawk seekers and the modernization of facilities responsible for handling the production and certification of missiles to Block V. More missiles beyond the envisioned 35-96 could be modernized in the event U.S. Congress authorized and appropriate additional funding, according to the solicitation. Up to 3992 Block IV Tomahawks are set to be recertified to the Block V variant according to a 2019 Budget Line Item Justification report from the Navy.
Work on the upgrades is set to be awarded in Q2 of FY 2026 and completed within two years, NAVAIR intends to award RTX, formerly Raytheon, the contract based on the company’s production of the Tomahawk cruise missile.
RTX has been awarded for the production of new-built Block V missiles and Block IV recertification efforts. The company was awarded a $400 million contract for 131 Block V Tomahawks for U.S. service branches, Australia, and Japan earlier in the year. This current solicitation was preceded by a similar 2023 award that supplied 42 Maritime Strike Tomahawk seekers in support of Block IV recertification efforts.
