The double-edged sword of secrecy in military weapon development

The Tomahawk missile is the United States Navy\´s premier land attack cruise missile and has enjoyed significant positive press during both Gulf Wars and in the recent strikes in Afghanistan. Considering the large and versatile weapon inventory of the U.S. military, it is no small achievement for a single weapon to be considered the "weapon of choice". In fact, the United States Air Force has its own land attack cruise missile called the Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM). Both the Tomahawk and the CALCM were conceived and initially developed under the same Department of Defense (DoD) program, the Joint Military Cruise Program Office. These two missiles with nearly identical early development and missions experienced quite different fates. The success of the Navy\´s Tomahawk, a program with relatively low secrecy when compared to the Air Force\´s CALCM, should be a lesson to military managers of future weapons procurement programs.