Tomahawks spearheaded US strike on Iran — why presidents reach for this missile first

The first missile in the U.S. arsenal used against Iranian targets in Saturday's pre-dawn strike was the Tomahawk, a long-range cruise missile launched from Navy ships and submarines.

About half the length of a standard telephone pole, the Tomahawk flies at the speed of a commercial airliner and can carry a 1,000-pound warhead about the distance from Washington, D.C., to Miami.

Fired from destroyers or submarines positioned hundreds of miles away, the missiles allow a president to respond rapidly to a crisis without sending pilots into contested airspace or deploying ground forces. 

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The Tomahawk has become a go-to option for limited military action because it offers precision and flexibility while keeping the U.S. footprint small. The missiles can hit fixed targets with high accuracy, reducing the risk of broader escalation. 

Presidents of both parties have used Tomahawks in the opening hours of military operations, from strikes in Iraq in the 1990s to more recent operations in Syria and elsewhere. 

Defense officials and military analysts say the weapon’s long range, reliability and relatively low risk to American personnel make it an attractive first strike option when the White House wants to send a message quickly but stop short of a wider war.

That combination of speed, distance and precision has kept the Tomahawk at the center of U.S. military planning for decades.

Manufactured by defense titan Raytheon — now RTX — the Tomahawk has been a mainstay of the Navy’s arsenal since the 1980s. It was first used in combat during the 1991 Gulf War and has since become a go-to option for presidents seeking to strike from long range without putting U.S. service members in harm’s way.

"Year in and year out, administration in and administration out, it’s the long-range land attack cruise missile that presidents reach for first in a crisis," Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital.

But heavy use has taken a toll. "We’ve been using them far more frequently than we’ve been producing them," Karako said.

Prior to Saturday’s operation, the missile was used in June 2025 during a U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Overall, the Tomahawk has been deployed more than 2,350 times.

At roughly $1.4 million apiece, the Tomahawk missile has an intermediate range of 800 to 1,553 miles and can be launched from more than 140 U.S. Navy ships and submarines. 

The Tomahawk strike was just one piece of a broader U.S. military posture in the region.

Ahead of the strikes, the U.S. military amassed what Trump previously called an "armada" in Iran’s backyard. Mapped out across the Persian Gulf and beyond, the deployment tells its own story, one of calculated pressure backed by credible capability.

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The deployment coincided with indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s disputed nuclear program. Trump has warned that the regime must fully dismantle its nuclear infrastructure or face consequences.

At the center of the U.S. presence are two aircraft carrier strike groups — the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford — each supported by guided-missile destroyers and cruisers and capable of sustained air and missile operations.

More than a dozen additional U.S. warships are also operating in the region in support roles, according to defense officials.

It was not immediately clear how or when Tehran might respond, though Iranian leaders have previously warned of retaliation in the event of direct U.S. military involvement.