Britain has reached agreement with the United States to buy new enhanced cruise missiles which can be fired from existing and future submarines.

Minister for Defence Procurement Lord Bach announced that under the terms of a Foreign Military Sales case, agreement has been reached to buy 64 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM).

These conventionally-armed missiles are the new Block IV TLAM – also known as TacTom – which have a higher spec than the Navy’s existing Block III arsenal.

The new weapons comer with the added ability to retarget or abort mission in flight, and will have a Battle Damage Indication capability.

They will be capable of being fired from the existing Trafalgar-class submarines as well as the new Astute boats which are currently in build at Barrow.

According to the MOD, the decision demonstrates the UK Government’s continued commitment to enabling precision attack at long range against selected targets.

Coupled with the ability to pre-position the missile covertly in attack submarines, it gives UK forces a powerful punch.

Lord Bach said: “I am delighted to confirm that we will be proceeding with the procurement of this vital capability for the Royal Navy.

“Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles are a key component of our inventory of precision weapons and have made a significant contribution to operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

“This announcement ensures that we will stay in line with the latest US developments of the Tomahawk missile and maintain the updated capability throughout the life of the Astute-class submarines.”

The value of the contract is put at £70 million, and the missiles, made by Raytheon in the United States, will require some limited upgrade work to the British submarines in order to operate them.

This work will be carried out by BAE Systems, the builders of the submarines, and Ultra Electronics.

Raytheon Systems Ltd at Glenrothes in Fife will manufacture some of the electronics in the missiles.