A US Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber used a new anti-ship munition to sink a decommissioned warship during a series of recent live-fire drills with partner forces in the Pacific Ocean, the US Navy said this week.
The US military earlier this month held two sinking exercises, known as SINKEXs, off the coast of Hawaii to practice targeting vessels at sea and train on different weapons systems.
The B-2 aircraft released an experimental weapon called QUICKSINK during the second of the two drills, which took place on Friday and involved the decommissioned amphibious assault ship USS Tarawa.
The bomber “proved a low-cost, air-delivered method for defeating surface vessels through a QUICKSINK demonstration, as part of the second SINKEX,” the Navy’s Third Fleet said in a statement Monday.
The QUICKSINK experiment, which is funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, “aims to provide options to neutralize surface maritime threats while demonstrating the inherent flexibility of the joint force,” the fleet said.
“This capability is an answer to an urgent need to quickly neutralize maritime threats over massive expanses of ocean around the world at minimal costs,” it added.
The QUICKSINK experimental weapon, which was first tested several years ago, essentially pairs existing Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits with new seeker technology that allows the munition to home in on a stationary or moving target at sea with precision.
Such a weapon would give the US and partner forces more strike options in the maritime domain, especially in a fight in the Pacific where combat might take place across large stretches of open ocean. Over the years, the various elements of the US armed forces have been pursuing more and more anti-ship capabilities.
“Torpedoes, such as the heavyweight MK-48, are still the primary method used to sink enemy ships,” the Air Force Research Laboratory has said of this type of combat, but “new methods explored through QUICKSINK may be able to achieve the same kind of anti-ship lethality with air-launched weapons, including modified 2,000-pound class precision-guided bombs.”
That opens the doors to bomber aircraft and other platforms that might prove less vulnerable than submarines and possibly more effective.
“A Navy submarine has the ability to launch and destroy a ship with a single torpedo at any time, but by launching that weapon, it gives away its location and becomes a target,” the Air Force said.
The service added that QUICKSINK “aims to develop a low-cost method of achieving torpedo-like seaworthy kills from the air at a much higher pace and over a much larger area than covered by a lumbering submarine.”
In addition to B-2s dropping QUICKSINK bombs, a US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet used a Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, to help sink the Tarawa. This relatively new weapon is a “precise, stealthy, and survivable cruise missile” that is capable of offensive anti-surface warfare, Third Fleet said.
The first SINKEX event, which involved the sinking of the decommissioned amphibious transport dock USS Dubuque, took place on July 11. Both the Tarawa and the Dubuque were sunk in 15,000-foot-deep water dozens of miles off the coast of Hawaii.
The SINKEXs included American, South Korean, Dutch, Australian, and Malaysian forces and were held during the Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2024, the world’s largest international maritime exercise.
“Sinking exercises give us a chance to sharpen our skills, learn from one another, and get real-world experience,” said US Navy Vice Adm. John Wade, the RIMPAC 2024 Combined Task Force Commander.
“Using advanced weapons and seeing the professionalism of our teams during these drills shows our commitment to keeping the Indo-Pacific region safe and open,” he added.
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