IV.

Effectiveness and Proliferation of Cruise Missiles

To date, cruise missiles have not been a decisive weapon. Military commanders attack most targets by other means. Until the 2003 war in Iraq, cruise missiles were used sparingly because they are expensive. The Tomahawk, for example, costs well over $1 million per missile. Also, in recent wars, enemy forces have not possessed many of the small, important, fixed targets such as permanent missile sites or airplane hangars, that cruise missiles were designed to attack. Another problem is that it is difficult to know whether a cruise missile has destroyed or even hit its intended target because they lack any means of transmitting a target picture back to the launch airplane or ship. New cruise missiles, however, are much cheaper. For example, a JASSM costs under $400,000 and is likely to be more widely used, especially in situations considered too dangerous for piloted aircraft.

The United States and other countries that have developed cruise missiles—including Britain, France, and Russia—have worked to limit the spread of modern cruise missile technology. Exports of long-range missiles are strictly limited, and the United States discourages the sale of weapons in the JASSM class to other countries. For example, the United States has refused to allow F-16 fighters sold to other nations to have such weapons. Experts are concerned, however, that in the long run other nations could use off-the-shelf technology, similar to that used in modern light airplanes, to develop cruise missiles that could pose a serious threat to the big bases and aircraft carriers used by United States and allied forces.