How much does Tomahawk missile cost, is it possible to buy them?

As predicted by Defense Express, the essence of the non-nuclear strategic deterrence package enshrined in the Victory Plan announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy includes the deployment of Tomahawk cruise missiles in Ukraine.

And quite expectedly, this idea has not found wide unanimous support in the United States, as stated in the insights of Western media. But amid this, one may wonder how much Tomahawks cost, because if something cannot be obtained in the form of aid or as a guarantee of security, then it may be worth trying to buy.

Moreover, Tomahawks are exported. And Japan became their last buyer. On 18 January 2024, the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced that it had signed an agreement with the United States to purchase 400 Tomahawk missiles and 14 control systems for these weapons. Of these, 200 units are the most advanced Block V version, and the rest are the previous Block IV, but both have a range of up to 1,600 km and are intended for ships.

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The final value of the contract was $1.7 billion. That is, one Tomahawk missile as part of a comprehensive deal cost $4.25 million. It should be added that Tokyo was able to negotiate a better price for itself than the one specified in the sales authorization issued in November 2023. It is also worth adding that the delivery period is until October 2027.

Thus, if Ukraine needs 1,000 Tomahawk missiles, each with a warhead weighing 450 kg, for a real non-nuclear strategic deterrence of Russia, it will need to spend $4.25 billion. To which should be added the cost of Typhon ground launchers. At the same time, one such launcher can launch 4 missiles, meaning that 125 launchers will provide up to two volleys of 500 missiles each. But so far, Typhon has not been exported, so it is difficult to estimate its cost.

Ultimately, this is a multi-billion dollar deal in any case, as the maintenance of these missiles will be another cost. But besides the cost, there is another deterrent. Tomahawk missiles are sold, but not to everyone. Since 1983, the United Kingdom has been the only operator of Tomahawk missiles besides the United States.

And only two countries received permission to purchase them in 2023 — the aforementioned Japan and Australia. The Netherlands has declared its desire to purchase these missiles, at any price, but has not yet received permission. That is, unfortunately, the situation with these weapons is somewhat more complicated than even just paying the price list.

That is why one of the few alternatives is to develop their own long-range cruise missile or participate in a joint project. The latter option for European countries is the MDBA Land Cruise Missile, whose development and collective arming was initiated by Germany.