---
title: "The Army Is Eyeing A Strategic Cannon With The Range Of A Tomahawk Cruise Missile"
date: "2018-09-18"
modified: "2018-09-18"
authors:
  - name: "Jared Keller"
    job_title: "Former Managing Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-cannon-tomahawk-cruise-missile/"
categories:
  - "Analysis"
  - "Army"
  - "Military Branches"
  - "News"
  - "Tech & Tactics"
  - "Weapons"
---

# The Army Is Eyeing A Strategic Cannon With The Range Of A Tomahawk Cruise Missile

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/18990354-1.jpg>)

Brace yourselves: the Army is exploring the rapid development of a long-range strategic cannon that can reach out and slap a target at a range of up to 1,000 nautical miles, [per](<https://www.military.com/defensetech/2018/09/14/army-eyeing-strategic-cannon-tech-1000-mile-range.html>) Military.com, a range [comparable](<https://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=2200&tid=1300&ct=2>) to Pentagon's existing arsenal of Tomahawk cruise missiles.

- Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Readiness on Sept. 14, Army Futures Command chief Gen. John Murray [detailed](<https://www.military.com/defensetech/2018/09/14/army-eyeing-strategic-cannon-tech-1000-mile-range.html>) plans for a "Strategic Long Range Cannon" as part of the Army's bid to improve its long-range precision fire capabilities in line with the branch's ambitious modernization roadmap
- "We are looking very hard and starting down the path of hypersonics and also looking at what we call the Strategic Long Range Cannon, which conceivably could have a range of up to 1,000 nautical miles," or 1,150 miles, Murray told lawmakers, [adding](<https://www.military.com/defensetech/2018/09/14/army-eyeing-strategic-cannon-tech-1000-mile-range.html>) that the Army intended of returning "both cannon and rocket artillery into our formations."

- For comparison: the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) cruise missiles [used](<https://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=2200&tid=1300&ct=2>) for land-attack warfare — like, say, pummeling alleged Syrian chemical weapons sites — offer a range of between 700 and 900 nautical miles, or between 800 and 1000 miles, [according](<https://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=2200&tid=1300&ct=2>) to the Navy.
- When this long-range cannon might see combat is, like all other ambitious weapons systems, up in the air. But Murray testified that the service had managed to knock a whole five years off of its development process with regards to the Army's maneuver short-range air defense systems (MSHOARD) thanks to new rapid acquisition guidelines which could accelerate the futuristic cannon's development.
- "The initial estimate was we could field one in 2025. We are now down to four battalions in fiscal year 2020," Murray [said](<https://www.military.com/defensetech/2018/09/14/army-eyeing-strategic-cannon-tech-1000-mile-range.html>) of the Army's MSHORAD development timeline, [per](<https://www.military.com/defensetech/2018/09/14/army-eyeing-strategic-cannon-tech-1000-mile-range.html>) Military.com. "The requirements process was done in 90 days, as opposed to the three to five years."

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![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/image-placeholder-title-1391.png>)

## Author
Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications.

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