Missiles need to be carried to the theater of operations too. They don't just teleport. For the US Navy a typical case would be an Arleigh Burke-class destroye

Missiles need to be carried to the theater of operations too. They don't just teleport. For the US Navy a typical case would be an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer [1] or a Ticonderoga-class cruiser [2]. Both types of vessels cost $1 billion or more. They both have vertical launch systems (VLS) with respectively 96 cells and 122 cells. Wikipedia says that a typical Ticonderoga missile configuration will include 26 Tomahawk missiles. The other cells are used for surface to air missiles and anti-submarine missiles, so they are basically for defense purposes. You can replace a number of defensive missiles with Tomahawks, but not too many. A USS Ford carrier comes at $13 BN, but it weighs more than 100k tons. A latest version of Arleigh Burke destroyer costs $1.8 BN (according to wikipedia) and weighs less than 10k tons. You get 7 or 8 Arleigh Burkes for the price of a Ford. But a Ford brings dozens of bombers to the theater and can sustain 160 sorties per day for 30 days, which can drop many thousands of tons of ordnance on the enemy. The destroyers can shoot their (optimistically) 500 Tomahawks missiles, and then go home. Just as a point of comparison, let's take a look at the annual procurement in smart bombs (Joint Direct Attack Munitions = JDAM) and Tomahawk missiles ([3], page 23) For the last 3 years (2020, 21 and 22), the DoD bought 28k, 20k and 5k JDAMs at a price of $1.8 BN and 90, 122, and 60 Tomahawks for a total of $1.9 BN. So, if things get a bit intense, and you need to fire 300 Tomahawks, you've just blown through 3 years of procurement and about $2 Billion dollars. Given the option, you'd probably prefer 50k smart bombs, for the same price. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arleigh_Burke-class_destroyer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arleigh_Burke-class_destroyer [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticonderoga-class_cruiser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticonderoga-class_cruiser [3] https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/FY2022/FY2022_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudg...