March 27, 2026 / 7:38 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington — The U.S. has fired hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles against Iran, according to two sources familiar with the matter — several times more than the Pentagon typically procures each year. One source said over 850 have been used so far in the conflict, a figure first reported by the Washington Post, roughly nine times the annual average procurement.
Maximum industry production capacity is estimated at about 2,330 missiles per year: three Raytheon contracts each cover 600 and a BAE contract covers up to 530 per year, per a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report citing Pentagon budget documents. But the actual procurement rate for the U.S. military has been around 90 per year, and the Navy requested only 57 Tomahawks for fiscal year 2026 in Defense Department budget documents.
Pentagon inventory is estimated at about 3,100 Tomahawk missiles, according to Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center. “It’s been recognized that we don’t have enough long-range strike capability, so we’ve been trying to build up these stockpiles, but we keep depleting them,” Grieco told CBS News.
Raytheon (RTX) announced a framework agreement with the Defense Department to scale up production to about 1,000 missiles per year over several years. CSIS and Pentagon notices show efforts to expand capacity, but those increases are gradual. A September 2025 Pentagon contract notice said Raytheon received funding for engineering to enhance Tomahawk All-Up Round production capacity, with work to be completed in March 2028.
What is a Tomahawk and who uses it?
The Tomahawk is a long-range, precision cruise missile launched from Navy destroyers and submarines, capable of traveling more than 1,000 miles and striking protected targets with high accuracy. Developed during the Cold War and continually upgraded, it is primarily operated by the U.S. Navy and has been adopted by the Marine Corps and Army; allied forces such as Britain’s Royal Navy also field similar systems. There is no evidence Iran uses or has obtained Tomahawk missiles.
According to Raytheon, the Tomahawk has been flight-tested over 550 times and used operationally in more than 2,300 strikes. It is often used when commanders want to hit distant or defended targets without risking pilots.
Cost
Tomahawk unit costs vary by version. Ballpark figures put some variants near $2.2 million each; Navy-launched versions capable of engaging moving ships can exceed $4 million. Ground-based launchers can cost more than $6 million.
Other munitions and industrial response
Tomahawks are one class among many advanced munitions the U.S. has expended. Sen. Jack Reed, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said U.S. forces have fired “thousands of Tomahawks, Precision Strike Missiles, and other long-range offensive weapons into Iran, while also using Patriot, THAAD, and Standard Missile interceptors at an alarming rate.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the Pentagon is reviving the defense industrial base to produce critical munitions faster. “We’re reviving our defense industrial base and rebuilding the arsenal of freedom,” he said, adding that new deals would cut “long lead times on exquisite munitions” and that the U.S. would be “refilled faster than anyone imagined.”
How many have been used since June 2025?
While there is no official cumulative public total, multiple news estimates and weapons experts say the U.S. military has used close to 1,000 Tomahawk missiles — and perhaps more — across strikes on Iran, operations in Yemen and the Red Sea, Nigeria and other engagements since June 2025.
Production constraints
Recent years have seen industry produce only a dozen to a few hundred Tomahawks annually under standard procurement cycles, a rate far below what even a short, high-intensity conflict could expend. Officials and analysts cite structural limits in a defense industrial base built for predictable demand rather than rapid wartime expansion. RTX’s plans to raise annual production above 1,000 and Pentagon engineering contracts aim to increase capacity, but expansion will occur over multiple years rather than immediately.