Watch an F/A-18 Hornet guide a Tomahawk cruise missile into a moving ship

A Hornet performs an airborne pickup of a Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile and guides it into a moving ship target.

On Jan. 27, a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) was tested against a moving target at sea off San Nicolas Island, California.

What is more, the TLAM was launched from a ship and guided into its target by an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

A video of the test was published by USNI News. It shows the missile launched from guided missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-100) and picked up by the aircraft, fly at low altitude towards the target chased by the Super Hornet and punch a hole through a container on a ship (scaring some pigeons away).

The Tomahawk IV can hit at a range of 1,000 miles and can adjust its flight path to pursuit moving targets. Guidance will eventually come from various platforms, including ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) aircraft and, most probably, drones.

Accoring to USNI News, the new Tomahawk variant could serve as a gap filler until the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LARSM), the navalized version based on  the JASSM-ER, will be able to support the Navy’s “distributed lethality” warfare strategy.

H/T to @F22Raptorace for the heads-up

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About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.