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A still image captured from U.S. Navy video footage shows a Tomahawk Land-Attack Missile (TLAM) is launched against ISIL targets from the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea in the Gulf, September 23, 2014. The United States and Arab allies hit Islamic State (IS) targets including training camps, headquarters and weapon supplies in northern and eastern Syria in dozens of air and missile strikes on Tuesday, the U.S. military and a monitoring group said. REUTERS/Abe McNatt/U.S. Navy/Handout REUTERS/Abe McNatt/U.S. Navy/Handout

The U.S. Navy has a new model of the Tomahawk land attack missile, or TLAM, and it recently conducted a flight test to see what it's capable of. The test carried out in January showed the cruise missile was able to punch a hole in a moving target at sea.

A report by USNI News showed the TLAM, after receiving new sensors, was launched from missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-100), and that it was guided by a Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet before it honed on its target at sea. A video showed the Tomahawk missile first flew for an unspecified amount of time before it finally smashed onto its target. The missile, aided by GPS satellite navigational updates, did a vertical dive to hit on a target designated by the Marines on San Nicolas.

The successful flight tests “demonstrates the viability of long-range communications for position updates of moving targets,” Capt. Joe Mauser, Tomahawk Weapons System (PMA-280) program manager for Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) said in a statement. “This success further demonstrates the existing capability of Tomahawk as a netted weapon, and in doing so, extends its reach beyond fixed and re-locatable points to moving targets.”

Bob Work, Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Pentagon's second-highest-ranked civilian, commended the devastating precision of the newly outfitted missile, saying its update was part of the Pentagon's "Third Offset Strategy," a research focused into new long-range weapons. “This is potentially a game changing capability for not a lot of cost.”

The newly converted TLAMs’ range is placed at 1,000 nautical miles, a range which is 50 percent more than China’s new advanced anti-ship cruise missiles, or ASCM. China has the supersonic ASCM Mach 3 YJ-12, said to be capable of ranges up to 300 km, and a second sub-sonic known as YJ-100, said to be with a range of up to 800 km.

Known as the Tomahawk Block IV, USNI said this particular type of missile of the U.S. Navy has the ability to “adjust its flight path” based on new information given to the missile allowing it to hit moving targets.

The video below:

YouTube/ Sam LaGrone

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