Sub Launches
Cruise Missile on Successful Test Mission
The Associated Press
Mar 21, 2000 - 01:38 PM
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AP) - A
submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missile successfully
completed a test Tuesday with a parachute landing at
this Florida Panhandle base.
The missile, accompanied by chase
aircraft, flew west from the USS Providence off
Jacksonville across Florida's peninsula and over the
Gulf of Mexico. It then turned north over the Panhandle
and Alabama before returning to Florida to complete the
750-mile test.
The Tomahawk used terrain-contour
matching technology to find its target on a test range
at Eglin in the 382nd test flight of the missile. It was
recovered and will be refurbished for future use.
The test is not part of an exercise by
the USS George Washington aircraft carrier battle group
scheduled to begin in the gulf Wednesday, said Sandy
Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon's cruise
missile program. Jets from the carrier will drop live
bombs on Eglin's test range.
The exercise was moved from Puerto
Rico because of protests against the Navy's continued
use of the island of Vieques as a bombing and gunnery
target.
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