Marine Corps Kills Tomahawk Plans, Goes All-in On Nmesis

The U.S. Marine Corps is cutting its Tomahawk rocket program, opting alternatively for a much nimble solution: nan Navy-Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, aliases NMESIS. The abrupt displacement comes aft nan Corps wished its Long Range Fires (LRF) launchers, designed to occurrence Tomahawk cruise missiles, couldn’t run efficaciously successful nan expeditionary and littoral environments that specify nan Pacific theater.

According to nan recently released FY2026 fund documents, “the Marine Corps has concluded that nan LRF strategy was not capable to beryllium employed successful austere, expeditionary, littoral environments and has made nan determination to terminate nan program.”

Trading Tomahawks for NMESIS

The original scheme was to section 56 LRF launchers equipped pinch a operation of Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM) and Maritime Strike Tomahawks (MST). After activating nan first LRF artillery astatine Camp Pendleton successful 2023, though, nan programme is now being shelved. The fewer existing launchers will beryllium removed from service, pinch nan Tomahawks transferred to nan Navy and Army.

Instead, nan Corps is investing heavy successful NMESIS — a mobile, ground-based anti-ship rocket system which pairs Naval Strike Missiles (NSMs) pinch nan ROGUE-Fires autonomous conveyance from Oshkosh Defense. NMESIS is amended suited to nan Corps’ Force Design concept: small, mobile units operating from land choke points to contradict adversaries (i.e. China) maritime access.

Each NMESIS launcher tin occurrence 2 NSMs. They are stealthy, sea-skimming weapons built by Kongsberg and are already utilized by nan Navy. The strategy was first deployed operationally successful April during Balikatan 2025, a awesome associated workout pinch Philippine forces. Six launchers were already delivered, and nan Marine Corps plans to section 48 full systems by March 2026.

Not your ‘normal’ NMESIS

For FY2026, nan Corps is requesting astir $222 cardinal for further NMESIS procurement, aft a one-year region successful buying caller units. That includes backing to statesman accumulation connected 36 upgraded Block II launchers pinch enhanced targeting capabilities and perchance extended rocket range. Deliveries of nan caller version are expected to statesman successful 2028.

The Block II NMESIS will beryllium a small much costly than erstwhile versions. Budget documents mention “engineering alteration proposals (ECPs) for accrued capabilities” arsenic nan logic for nan accrued per-unit cost. Though galore of nan upgrades are classified, imaginable improvements see M-Code GPS integration and package enhancements for controlling aggregate launchers simultaneously.

The Corps is besides pursuing a longer-range version of nan Naval Strike Missile. In FY2025, engineers vanished designs for a much energy-dense substance and started modifying formation profiles to amended scope and efficiency. Flight testing is expected to commencement successful FY2026.

More backing for HIMARS

In summation to NMESIS, nan Marine Corps is requesting astir $14.5 cardinal for a caller occurrence power strategy to support its fleet of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and complete $500 cardinal to procure extended-range Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (ER GMLRS). These systems could yet beryllium configured for anti-ship operations, extending nan Corps’ maritime onslaught toolkit moreover further.

Despite cutting nan Tomahawk launcher program, nan Marine Corps appears to beryllium reinforcing its committedness to precision long-range fires tailored for distributed operations successful nan Indo-Pacific. The accent now is connected speed, survivability and interoperability pinch allied forces successful nan region.

By shifting its investments toward NMESIS and distant from nan Tomahawk-based LRF, nan Marine Corps is signaling a clear penchant for lighter, faster and much elastic onslaught options. 

The USMC’s total budget petition for FY2026 is $57.2 billion, which is portion of nan Department of nan Navy’s wide fund petition of $292.2 billion.