This month, the cockroach President joined the missile wars. That administration has now become the most aggressive ever, launching 59 cruise missiles so far during its first calendar quarter. None of the missile attacks have been authorized by Congress. Congress has not declared war since 1942, during World War II.
Missiles per quarter
Presidential administration
18
Herbert Bush
26
Clinton
27
Walker Bush
6
Obama
59
Trump
In early April, news media reported a U.S. Navy carrier strike group deploying to international waters near North Korea. It includes the USS Vinson nuclear-powered CVN aircraft supercarrier, the USS Bunker Hill and Lake Champlain CG guided missile cruisers, and six DDG guided missile destroyers: the USS Benfold, Gridley, Higgins, Russell, Sterett and Stockdale.
Together the carrier group has around 8,000 personnel, 100 aircraft and 800 guided missiles–of which about two-thirds are typically cruise missiles. Attached to the carrier strike group may be one or more SSGN submarines, each carrying about 150 cruise missiles.
U.S. origins: The United States developed cruise missiles in the 1970s, mainly to launch attacks with nuclear weapons from U.S. Navy vessels at sea. The historical model was the German V-1, also called the “buzz bomb”–used against Britain during World War II. While versions were developed to launch from aircraft and trucks, only ship and submarine cruise-missile launchers are now deployed.
Seven models of cruise missiles have been manufactured by General Dynamics, McDonnell Douglas and Raytheon. They have been operational since 1983. Several models are in current production. A total of around 6,000 cruise missiles have been delivered to date, at an average program cost of around $2 million each.
Two models equipped with nuclear explosives, deployed from 1983 through 2013, were rated at yields of up to 200,000 tons of TNT–around ten times that of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb near the end of World War II. Five models with chemical explosives are rated at yields of up to about 1/2 ton of TNT.
U.S. cruise missiles have flight ranges of about 800 to 1,500 miles at variable speeds, about 250 to 550 mph. Different models are controlled by inertial guidance–gyroscopes and acceleration sensors–by radar, by optical systems, by satellite signals and by combinations.
Air attacks: From first offensive use in 1991 through the early spring of 2017, the U.S. military has launched a reported 2,217 cruise missiles in attacks against other countries. Flying at night, as they often have, their practical accuracies have been too limited to disable strategic targets reliably with chemical explosives. That has led to launching tens to hundreds of missiles in air attacks.
Year
Missiles
Target countries
1991
288
Iraq
1993
46
Iraq
1993
23
Iraq
1995
13
Bosnia
1996
44
Iraq
1998
79
Afghanistan, Sudan
1998
415
Iraq
1999
218
Serbia, Montenegro
2001
50
Afghanistan
2003
802
Iraq
2008
2
Somalia
2009
2
Yemen
2011
124
Libya
2014
47
Syria
2016
5
Yemen
2017
59
Syria
Several organizations promoting military activities have estimated schemes to attack North Korea before it can deploy nuclear weapons on long-range missiles. They find the window closing, with North Korea developing anti-missile and anti-ship defenses. North Korea already has several nuclear sites, weapons factories and military communications centers–plus around 200 truck-mounted missile launchers.
With ten or more cruise missiles needed to disable a strategic target reliably, the United States might need to launch a few thousand–essentially its current inventory. It might need to supplement those with strikes by land-based, supersonic “stealth” aircraft–the F-22 and B-2–and strikes by carrier-based forces. Such a campaign could far exceed the aggression against Iraq during the Walker Bush era.