US to Spend $22.9 Billion to Accelerate Tomahawk Missile Production

The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon, a subsidiary of RTX, a $22.9 billion contract to ramp up production of Tomahawk cruise missiles.

The U.S. Navy announced the deal on its website.

The Pentagon emphasized that the contract is part of a broader shift in the U.S. approach to weapons procurement.

The aim is to get weapons to U.S. forces faster and increase production more quickly to meet current security needs.

To do this, Raytheon will expand its production facilities, increase manufacturing capacity, and strengthen its supply chains. The investments are also expected to create more jobs in ammunition production.

According to estimates by various experts, before the start of the war with Iran, the U.S. Navy may have had between 3,000 and 4,500 Tomahawk missiles.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces fired more than 850 of these missiles at Iran during just four weeks of war, which could have amounted to roughly a quarter of their stockpile.

The latest version of the Tomahawk may cost as much as $3.6 million per missile.

Previously, The Washington Post reported that U.S. President Donald Trump accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of hiding information about ammunition shortages.

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), it could take the U.S. at least three years to replenish its stocks of Tomahawk missiles, as well as the air defense missiles used by Patriot and THAAD systems. These munitions were used extensively during the war with Iran.

The depletion of these stocks could pose a potential problem for the U.S. in the event of a large-scale conflict with China.

CSIS notes that the main obstacle to quickly replenishing U.S. arsenals is not funding, but the time required to expand production capacity and manufacture complex missile systems.