Ship-killing guided bomb put to test as Air Force sinks cargo vessel

The Air Power in July examined a brand new ship-killing guided bomb to exhibit the service’s rising capability to sink enemy vessels.

A B-2 Spirit bomber launched the weapon, which the Air Power Analysis Laboratory calls QUICKSINK, in opposition to an empty cargo vessel within the Gulf of Mexico, AFRL stated in a Thursday launch.

Col. Matthew Caspers, head of AFRL’s munitions directorate at Eglin Air Power Base in Florida, stated in an announcement that the know-how will make sure the U.S. can defend its pursuits, hold seas open, and “seize the initiative over giant maritime areas.”

“QUICKSINK is a solution to an pressing have to neutralize maritime threats to freedom around the globe,” Caspers stated.

The Air Power is creating QUICKSINK to bolster its anti-ship capabilities, which might be essential in a possible battle with China or one other main adversary. Protection leaders have repeatedly stated the U.S. navy’s high problem is China, which views the island nation of Taiwan as a breakaway province with which it should reunify, presumably by way of a swift invasion.

A battle in opposition to China would doubtless contain fierce naval battles throughout the Pacific, and the Air Power hopes QUICKSINK would supply one other weapon in its arsenal to counter the Chinese language navy.

The QUICKSINK program will enable the Air Power to change present or future weapons to hit targets at sea which might be both stationary or transferring. AFRL stated in 2021, because it started testing the idea, that it desires the weapons to dwelling in on particular factors on the goal vessel, together with at its high, on the waterline or simply under the water’s floor.

AFRL didn’t specify which weapon was utilized in July’s check to sink the cargo vessel, referred to as the Monarch Countess. A earlier check in 2022 used a modified GPS-guided GBU-31 Joint Direct Assault Munitions, or JDAM, to strike a goal vessel.

The JDAM doesn’t function beneath its personal energy, and makes use of fins to steer in the direction of its goal whereas the velocity of the releasing plane and gravity present the weapon’s velocity.

AFRL stated in a 2021 interview with Army.com that the JDAM’s nostril plug had been redesigned as a part of this effort. That was carried out to make sure the JDAM doesn’t careen off in an surprising path if it hits the water earlier than placing its goal, which an AFRL official in comparison with a stone skipping throughout a pond’s floor.

Whereas the Air Power hopes QUICKSINK would have the same ship-killing impact as a standard torpedo, this weapon wouldn’t journey beneath the water’s floor to the goal. Air Power officers say QUICKSINK could be cheaper and extra versatile than heavy-weight torpedoes, and could possibly be launched from many of the service’s fight plane.

A B-2 bomber carried out July’s check, and an F-15E Strike Eagle launched a GBU-31 JDAM that had been modified right into a maritime QUICKSINK weapon in a earlier check in 2022.

AFRL’s munitions directorate is working with the Navy on a Maritime Weapon Program to develop air-launched weapons that may sink enemy ships.

The July check within the Gulf of Mexico was separate from the Navy’s live-fire sinking workouts throughout the Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, drills that very same month, AFRL stated.

The RIMPAC workouts included sinking two decommissioned ships — the amphibious transport dock Dubuque and the amphibious assault ship Tarawa — off the coast of Hawaii. These ships had been struck by plane and ships from the U.S., Australia, Malaysia, the Netherlands and South Korea, utilizing weapons that included the Lengthy-Vary Anti-Ship Missile and the RGM-84 Harpoon missile.