"In a £265 million [$344 million] contract with the US Government, with maintenance and technical support at the UK sites of BAE Systems, Babcock International and Lockheed Martin, the Royal Navy’s Astute-Class submarines will be armed with an enhanced Block V standard missile, capable of striking severe threats at a range of up to 1,000 miles," the ministry said in a statement.
The upgraded missile can travel further than the previous Block IV iteration and is less vulnerable to external threats, the statement noted, adding that the supplies of new missiles will start from 2024.
The high sub-sonic Tomahawk missile was first deployed in the UK in 1998 and was successfully used during operations in Afghanistan, Libya, and Iraq.