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[Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Yang] The "RIMPAC 2024" multinational joint maritime exercise, which lasted for more than a month, is coming to an end. The "sinking" exercise, which was the highlight, ended with the retired 40,000-ton "Tarawa" amphibious assault ship sinking into the sea amid an explosion. CNN said on the 27th that the powerful anti-ship attack capability demonstrated by the US military in this exercise was an obvious signal to China. Chinese experts believe that the US military's much-vaunted "quick sinking" tactics are actually based on traditional satelliteGuided bombIt has been modified and has limited penetration capability. Its only advantage is that it is cheap.

What did the two "sinkings" want to verify?

The website of the U.S. Naval Institute said that the "RIMPAC 2024" exercise involves 40 surface ships, 3 submarines, more than 150 aircraft and more than 25,000 officers and soldiers from 29 countries, including army forces from 14 countries. Long before the exercise began, the U.S. media concentrated on hyping that the United States and its allies would practice sinking the retired 40,000-ton "Tarawa" amphibious assault ship. This ship is not only the largest tonnage warship sunk by the U.S. military in the past 20 years, but also in the context of "China's vigorous construction of large amphibious assault ships", the U.S. military's exercise is a demonstration to China, preparing for the possibility of the People's Liberation Army using amphibious assault ships to "attack Taiwan" by force.

In this context, on July 18, the US Navy, Air Force and the Australian Navy participated in a live-fire exercise to sink the amphibious assault ship "Tarawa".fighterAn AGM-158C long-rangeAnti-ship missiles(LRASM). This anti-ship cruise missile has a maximum range of nearly 1,000 kilometers, can intelligently plan attack routes, and rely on stealth performance to evade detection and interception by opponents. It is mainly carried by the US Navy's "Super Hornet" fighter and the US Air Force's B-1B bomber. The US Air Force's B-2 strategic bomber dropped a modified 2,000-pound GBU-31 joint direct attack munition on the "Tarawa". A statement released by the Australian Navy stated that the new "Navy Strike Missile" launched by the "Sydney" destroyer dealt the "Tarawa" a fatal final blow. This new anti-ship missile developed by Norway can challenge the opponent's defense by flying at sea-skimming altitudes and performing evasive maneuvers within a flight range of 185 kilometers. It is gradually replacing the "Harpoon" anti-ship missile that has been in service for many years in the navies of many countries. According to CNN, Australian Navy Commander Vice Admiral Mark Hammond said that this achievement "represents a significant improvement in the lethality of our surface fleet" and "multi-domain strike capabilities, including the 'Navy Strike Missile', are the basis for preventing any potential adversary from projecting power against Australia."

GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munitions mounted on a U.S. fighter jet

During the RIMPAC 2024 exercise, another "sinking" exercise was held on July 11. The target ship was the USS Dubuque, an Austin-class dock transport ship of the US Navy that was decommissioned in 2011. However, the US Navy's press release did not specify how many days the two "sinking" exercises took, nor did it clearly state which other navies participated. The US Naval Institute website stated that based on information from various sources, the Dutch Navy frigate Tromp launched a "Harpoon" anti-ship missile during the exercise; the South Korean submarine "Lee Beom-seok" carrying torpedoes and submarine-launched anti-ship missiles and the Malaysian frigate "Lai Chu" carrying "Exocet" anti-ship missiles participated in the "sinking" exercise; the USS Fitzgerald of the US NavyDestroyerA Naval Strike Missile is fired during the Rim of the Pacific 2024 exercise, and a U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter fires a Hellfire anti-tank missile at the USS Dubuque.

B-2 testing new weapons draws attention

In the process of sinking the Tarawa, the US media particularly highlighted the participation of the B-2 bomber. CNN said that as one of the most survivable weapon platforms of the US military, the B-2 stealth bomber hit the retired amphibious assault ship with a cheap guided bomb, which "sent a clear signal to any future hypothetical conflict between the United States and China." The US Navy's Third Fleet said in a press release: "This capability responds to the urgent need to quickly eliminate maritime threats in large areas of water around the world at the lowest cost."

The U.S. Air Force calls the B-2's mode of dropping guided bombs to perform anti-ship operations "QUICKSINK." The U.S. Aviation Scientist website said that the modified GBU-31 joint direct attack munitions that perform this type of anti-ship mission are a combination of the GPS guidance device at the tail and the newly installed warhead.radarThe infrared imaging guidance module in the seeker and side fairing is integrated together. When performing an attack mission, the bomb uses the standard satellite-guided glide bomb mode to fly near the combat area, then activates the radar and infrared imaging guidance device to lock the target and guide the bomb to explode below the waterline of the target ship. Since the GBU-31 is a 2,000-pound heavy bomb, its explosive power is far greater than that of conventional anti-ship missiles.

CNN said that the B-2 bomber is the most advanced stealth bomber of the US military. The US Air Force boasted that its stealth characteristics "enable it to penetrate heavily defended areas and obtain battlefield scenes that are impossible to see from low-flying aircraft." The Aviationist website also claimed that a B-2 can carry up to 16 GBU-31 bombs, highlighting its powerful anti-ship firepower in maritime conflicts. The use of the B-2 with relatively cheap and obviously effective precision-guided bombs can give the Air Force bomber an "anti-ship lethality" equivalent to submarine-launched torpedoes. The US Air Force Research Laboratory said: "Navy submarines have the ability to launch torpedoes to destroy targets, but when launching torpedoes, they expose their positions and become hunting targets for the opponent's anti-submarine forces." Therefore, "fast sinking" can provide "a low-cost method to achieve the same destructive effect as torpedoes from the air at a higher speed than submarines." The US Air Force statement showed that "fast sinking" was first tested in 2022, when an F-15 fighter launched a modified version of the GBU-31 bomb to destroy a large surface target in the Gulf of Mexico.

US media claimed that if conflicts occurred in the Western Pacific, including hot spots such as Taiwan, the Philippines and the Southwest Islands of Japan, these precision-guided bombs launched by the B-2 would become one of the main threats to the PLA Navy. Carl Shuster, who served as the head of the Joint Intelligence Center of the US Pacific Command, said: "You can't ignore this weapon. It can sink a 25,000-ton ship with one strike."

CNN claims that although China has thousands of missiles and the "world's largest navy" and the ability to provide air cover for naval ships with land-based aircraft, analysts say the B-2 and other weapons tested in the "Rim of the Pacific" exercise may partially offset China's advantage in long-range firepower. Alessio Patalano, professor of war and strategy at King's College London, declared: "The B-2 expands the scope of putting potential enemies in danger through advanced weapons while maintaining a considerable degree of stealth. It openly warns opponents that no matter where you are in this vast war zone, you are unsafe." John Bradford, an international affairs researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the tests of the "Rim of the Pacific" exercise show that the United States is preparing for conflict in the region: "We can fully expect that a great power naval conflict in the Pacific will be mainly a battle of long-range weapons. The United States is preparing for this kind of battle."

"Trying to scare China with military exercises is completely wishful thinking"

In response to the recent US military exercises and high-level "intimidation" remarks about China, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Zhang Xiaogang said at a Defense Ministry press conference on July 25 that it is wishful thinking to use military exercises to scare China. The Chinese military has always been unyielding, fearless, and fearless of oppression. It has the determination, ability, and means to defeat all invading enemies and defend national sovereignty, security, and development interests.

Chinese experts interviewed by the Global Times said that the "quick sinking" tactics that the United States boasted about in the "RIMPAC 2024" exercise are actually the addition of radar and infrared guidance devices to traditional satellite-guided bombs. It has no power plant of its own and can only glide. Not only is its maneuverability limited, but it also has no stealth capability and is easily discovered and intercepted by modern fleet air defense systems. In terms of performance, the penetration capability of this modified version of the guided bomb is far inferior to that of modern anti-ship missiles. The only advantage worth mentioning is that it is cheap. In fact, the US Air Force had previously planned to use B-1B bombers carrying AGM-158C long-range anti-ship missiles to attack the opponent's crossing fleet, but the Pentagon later discovered that the number of long-range anti-ship missiles in the US military inventory was far from enough to support such a large-scale attack. Therefore, using the B-2 to drop a modified version of the GBU-31 guided bomb can only be regarded as a scaled-down version of the above plan, and it is an emergency measure for the US military in the case of insufficient production capacity of advanced anti-ship missiles. However, experts said that the U.S. military has a large inventory of JDAM guided bombs, which are easy to modify. Although these guided bombs are unlikely to be used against the core of the fleet, such as amphibious assault ships that are closely protected by the fleet, as practiced in the Rim of the Pacific exercise, it is still necessary to remain highly vigilant if they are used against logistics transport ships.