Naval battles, for most, are visions of submarines stalking unsuspecting victims or missile-toting destroyers at the back. But a recent exercise of Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 war exercise off the coast of Hawaii proved how much the mindset is shifting. The test was an eye-opener to the power of precision: An American Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber launching a new missile into an old destroyer—and shooting it way down into the ocean.
The test target was the retired USS Tarawa, a 39,000-ton assault ship the size of a small carrier. On its first approach, the B-2 dropped a QUICKSINK bomb, a weapon that would revolutionize the very fabric of naval warfare. No dry run at sinking an old ship. It was a proof-of-concept, showing one means of delivering torpedo-like doom from the air quickly and at range without having to use expensive submarines or highly developed missile strikes. So fascinating is QUICKSINK in how it’s constructed.
It employs the highly established Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit and incorporates a specialty seeker into it such that it will chase moving and stationary targets. That is, the 2,000-pound bomb now can locate, find, and sink ships with never-before-heard precision.
The Air Force experimented with the concept using an F-15 way back in 2022, but to see it fire from the B-2, which can travel around the globe, is a whole different ball game. A deep-penetrating stealth bomber that comes behind enemy lines unseen and then launches this type of missile introduces a whole new level to maritime warfare. QUICKSINK was not the sole impressor at RIMPAC.
A US F/A-18F Super Hornet launched a Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), a penetrating missile with over 230 miles of range, utilizing a 1,000-pound warhead. The Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Sydney subsequently raised the stakes in launching a Naval Strike Missile, a sea-skimming cruise missile that offers maneuver and survivability. The exercise had the USS Fitzgerald, the American destroyer, to reinforce the multinational and multilateral nature of the exercise.
Overall, the protests clearly showed how the allied forces were practicing winning and fighting at sea. Why should that concern us? Because the Pacific is the proving grounds of the doctrine of the new navy.
Blue-water surface warships and amphibious warships, the epitome of blue-water brawn, are confronting a world in which one airplane, properly armed, can sink them to the ocean floor in but a few seconds. The B-2’s potential to accomplish that is causing naval planners everywhere to rethink how and where they fight. The revolution is part of a greater change.
Subs used to be yesterday’s sub killers who fired torpedoes in the dark. With advancing anti-sub defense technology and response time being quicker, air-launch capable platforms such as QUICKSINK are filling the gap.
They provide the same killing capability as a torpedo and the flexibility of power unleashed from the air in an economical quantity, where it can be mass-produced. It is this value, speed, and cost combination that makes them revolutionary. Mr. Sign’s value is not in hardware.
As RIMPAC 2024 Combined Task Force Commander Vice Adm. John Wade said, the exercises were to show capability to the world, to work together, and to demonstrate that sophisticated weapons could be used under combined command. Every test flight was a pronouncement of readiness and, as unified as it was, a technology demonstration.
The B-2 Spirit is finally more than an icon of American aerial power. It’s a metaphor for optimism about the future of naval warfare—stealthed ships with guided weapons hitting where it will hurt the most. Another in the arsenal is the QUICKSINK bomb, and the symbolism slices deep: that naval war in the future will no longer be from below but from above.