Lower than two months after a cordial summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the White Home is contemplating sending Ukraine long-range Tomahawk missiles, a transfer that Putin known as a “fully new stage of escalation” on Thursday.
Sending the highly effective weapons—which might attain Moscow—would mark one other main political shift from an administration that till just lately appeared skeptical of Ukraine’s possibilities of profitable the battle in opposition to Russia.
Lower than two months after a cordial summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the White Home is contemplating sending Ukraine long-range Tomahawk missiles, a transfer that Putin known as a “fully new stage of escalation” on Thursday.
Sending the highly effective weapons—which might attain Moscow—would mark one other main political shift from an administration that till just lately appeared skeptical of Ukraine’s possibilities of profitable the battle in opposition to Russia.
However sending them suits nicely into each Ukrainian and U.S. army methods, in keeping with specialists, offering Kyiv with an additional enhance to its to this point profitable technique of focusing on Russian oil whereas impacting U.S. weapons shares as little as potential.
Talking on Sunday, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance stated the USA was “taking a look at” promoting the missiles to Ukraine, following experiences that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had requested the USA for the weapons final week. The Wall Road Journal reported on Wednesday that the USA will give Ukraine intelligence for long-range strikes on Russia’s oil sector.
Tomahawks would give Ukraine a lift in its present marketing campaign to focus on Russian oil manufacturing, in keeping with Bryan Clark, a senior fellow on the Hudson Institute assume tank, and Mark Cancian, a senior advisor with the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research assume tank.
That marketing campaign is already going nicely. Ukrainian drone strikes have minimize Russia’s oil-refining quantity by as a lot as one-fifth, posing a problem to Russia’s federal finances, which depends on oil and gasoline income for as a lot as half of its spending. The army marketing campaign aligns with diplomatic stress from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has centered on pressuring international locations to cut back their purchases of Russian power.
Nonetheless, the payload of those drones is considerably lower than the Tomahawk, which sports activities a 1,000-pound warhead. Ukraine in August additionally started utilizing a domestically produced new missile much like the Tomahawk, dubbed Flamingo, however the missile is comparatively untested and accessible in solely small portions.
“There’s an enormous distinction within the lethality” between Ukrainian drones and the Tomahawk, stated Clark.
For Washington, in the meantime, Tomahawks are possible enticing as a result of the U.S. has so most of the weapons, Cancian stated.
America has produced the weapons for the reason that Nineteen Eighties and certain has a stockpile of 1000’s. A 2025 finances submission states that the Protection Division has purchased nearly 9,000 of the missiles. Whereas the U.S. army routinely fires them on operations—together with in volleys of dozens of missiles at a time—it would have the ability to spare as many as 200 for Ukraine, Cancian stated.
“The inventories are fairly sturdy whenever you embrace the older variations,” he stated.
A few of these weapons are already nearing their retirement age, Clark added, that means they’d be higher off being utilized by Ukraine now slightly than expiring in a U.S. warehouse someplace. Against this, newer weapons with related ranges—such because the Navy’s SM-6 or the Air Pressure’s JASSM missiles—have smaller stockpiles, he stated.
That’s to not say supplying the weapons will likely be simple.
Chief among the many issues could also be overcoming possible arguments from Pentagon policymakers that the USA can’t spare even a single Tomahawk for Ukraine. In July, the Protection Division briefly suspended transfers of some munitions to Ukraine following a overview of U.S. stockpiles.
That overview was reportedly ordered by Protection Division coverage head Elbridge Colby, who has lengthy argued that Washington ought to focus on making ready for a possible battle with China over different areas. Tomahawks, whose lengthy vary make them a super weapon for the Pacific, are “completely” the kind of long-range weapon the USA would wish in such a battle, stated Cancian.
In fact, the White Home might overrule any Pentagon considerations, as Trump did by restarting weapons shipments following the sooner pause.
Yet one more downside is likely to be how Ukraine would really launch the missiles, that are primarily ship-launched. The U.S. Marine Corps has fielded small numbers of ground-based launchers beneath a just lately canceled program. The Military can also be standing up new ground-based Tomahawk launchers, however that program is in its infancy.
Nonetheless, Clark expressed optimism that Ukraine might jury-rig one thing collectively, noting Ukraine’s success in adapting sea-launched Harpoon missiles for land launches.
Lastly, Russia’s personal response might affect the U.S. resolution. Clark rated the diploma of escalation as low, nonetheless, stating that Ukraine is already hitting targets deep inside Russia.
“Ukraine’s already executing the sorts of assaults you are able to do with a Tomahawk with drones,” stated Clark. “So this could simply be a distinct manner of doing the identical assaults they’re already doing.
