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From: igor!rutabaga!wab@uunet.UU.NET (Bill Baker)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Carrier Ops in Gulf
Message-ID: <1991Apr12.055244.14337@amd.com>
Date: 11 Apr 91 18:50:41 GMT
References: <1991Apr6.021133.14701@amd.com> <1991Apr10.024432.21134@amd.com> <1991Apr11.033726.4881@amd.com>
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From: igor!rutabaga!wab@uunet.UU.NET (Bill Baker)


In article <1991Apr11.033726.4881@amd.com> megazone@wpi.WPI.EDU (Brian Bikowicz) writes:
>The USAF held a fly-off
>between the Boeing ALCM and the Tomahawk. The ALCM is the missile with the
>dorsal inlet and the triangular nose. (The ALCM won the USAF contest.)
>The ALCM is a nuclear deterent, whereas the Tomahawk has many conventional
>explosive options which allows its use in wars such as Iraq.

I've wondered for a long time which is the better cruise missile.
Back when I was in junior high (shows you how long procurement cycles
are), my dad was a PR type for Boeing, and he took me into the "lab"
where they were working on one of the prototypes.  Very cool: An
ice-white missile about the size of my sailboat with tiger's teeth on
the nose.  I remember that the ALCM blew away the Tomahawk in the
original fly-offs (adjust for Boeing prejudices).  Now, the Tomahawk
has obviously earned its stripes, but I'm curious as to which is the
more accurate missile.  Unless they're demobilized from the nuclear
deterrence role, we'll never get to see the ALCM tested in combat like
the Tomahawk.  Still, they must test fire ALCM's occasionally and I
wonder if it still beats the pants off the Tomahawk.  Is there an
unclassified answer?