Hopper 'ready to go' with Tomahawks

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

PEARL HARBOR — The Navy firepower that struck deep into Iraq, heralding the start of a new Gulf War, isn't obvious on the decks of the USS Hopper. Its Tomahawk cruise missiles are kept five stories below, in vertical launch cells fore and aft that spit so much smoke and fire that the deck has to be cleared during a launch.

U.S. Navy Sonar Technician Geographic 2nd Class Kyle Malizia, left, and fellow crew members of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Hopper run an antisubmarine warfare drill in the vessel's combat information center. The Pearl Harbor-based ship is capable of carrying up to 90 Tomahawk cruise missiles five stories below deck. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

The destroyer Hopper, with the ability to carry up to 90 of the missiles, is sailing April 1 for air, subsurface and strike training near Hawai'i.

"(Training) up to get as ready as we can if they need us," said Lt. Lee Donaldson, the Hopper's combat systems officer. "If they want us for Korea, the Gulf — wherever, we're ready to go."

The Pearl Harbor-based guided missile destroyers Paul Hamilton and O'Kane are in the Persian Gulf, and the cruiser Chosin is on the way. Eight attack submarines out of Hawai'i also are in the Gulf or the western Pacific.

All carry Tomahawks, $600,000 missiles that carry a 1,000-pound punch and are the U.S. weapon of choice for long-range, precision strikes against heavily-defended targets.

"Obviously, no one wants to go to war," said Hopper commanding officer Cmdr. Ken Auten, who showed reporters around the ship yesterday. "But if you have to go to war, this is the best place to be, and you've got the best weapons systems around."

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, which protect battle groups but have multimission roles, also carry standard and Harpoon missiles, antisubmarine rockets and torpedoes.

The four ships that took part in Wednesday's strikes are the destroyers Donald Cook and Milius, cruisers Cowpens and Bunker Hill, and submarines Cheyenne and Montpelier.

Auten, who has fired Tomahawks in practice, said he can guess how Navy personnel in the Gulf feel about the Tomahawks that have been launched. A second round of about 20 of the missiles were fired yesterday.

"I suspect that again, the feeling is you hope you never have to use something like this," Auten said. "But as one who knows the reason you're putting something on target is because of what somebody did to us — or the fact that maybe one of the weapons that we shot is going to protect a bunch of Marines or an Army division or knock out some aircraft base that you're flying over — it makes you feel like you're doing your job."

Auten said he can't go into specifics of the Tomahawks' accuracy.

"But unclassified media sources will tell you that they have navigation systems that will get them to their targets," he said. "It is definitely an accurate system."

The Navy has about 1,000 of the 20-foot missiles, which were used in Desert Storm in 1991, Iraq in 1993, Bosnia in 1995, Iraq in 1996, Operation Desert Fox in 1998 in Iraq, and Operation Allied Force in Kosovo in 1999.

The Hopper fired Tomahawks in Operation Desert Fox.

The destroyer, with a crew of about 320, returned in October from a deployment to the Arabian Gulf in which it patrolled for ships coming out of Iraq with illegal oil.

Auten said his crew goes through "lots and lots of simulations" firing missiles.

Lt. j.g. Tamara Conant, 24, the strike officer on the Hopper, said there has to be satisfaction on the Navy ships that launched cruise missiles.

"I know it's hard to go out there and train and train and train all the time and never get to actually do it," she said. "I'm sure there's a great sense of satisfaction in saying, 'I actually shot it,' and we've actually able to do what we've trained to do."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.

Correction: Kyle Malizia, a U.S. Navy Sonar Technician Geographic 2nd Class, is shown in the photograph. His military title was incorrect in a previous version of the caption.