A new experimental US Air Force bomb can sink warships, but the question is if it’s the right weapon for a war with China

This experimental weapon was first tested a few years ago and most recently in a pair of tests in July, one during a series of live-fire drills off the coast of Hawaii last month and another in the Gulf of Mexico. The weapon’s development comes amid a broader, military-wide effort to pursue anti-ship capabilities.

QUICKSINK pairs existing Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits with new seeker technology that allows the weapon to target stationary and moving targets — like ships — with precision. According to the Air Force Research Laboratory, the goal is to replicate the combat potential of a submarine with an aircraft that can cover a much larger area.

QUICKSINK undoubtedly gives the US military more strike options in the maritime domain at a lower cost, and the new bomb’s development appears to address the military’s growing concerns about China’s substantial and increasingly capable naval forces. If Washington and Beijing were to ever go to war, anti-ship capabilities would probably play a critical role.

Before QUICKSINK, Chinese forces at sea would mainly have to worry about the threat of a nearby aircraft carrier, surface combatant, or submarine, Bryan Clark, a former US Navy officer and defense expert at the Hudson Institute, told Business Insider. Now, Beijing has to think about the possibility of being attacked by US bombers, too.

Even if there aren’t any “naval forces around,” he said, the Chinese navy “might still be under threat from Air Force bombers that can essentially range globally.”

“It’s an important tool in the toolkit,” Clark said, explaining that it makes sense for the Air Force to pursue the capability since it’s an inexpensive adaptation of an existing weapon and there are not any additional costs needed to buy or modify aircraft.

The weapon “seems like a pretty low-cost way to create another avenue of threat for Chinese naval forces to consider,” he said.

QUICKSINK is not the only initiative indicative of the Air Force’s desire to increase its maritime strike capabilities.

Gunzinger, the director of future concepts and capability assessments at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, said the Air Force is also trying to acquire as many of the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, as possible.

The Navy says that the LRASM is a “precise, stealthy, and survivable cruise missile” capable of offensive anti-surface warfare. This particular missile is the ideal air-launched weapon for maritime warfare, but it’s rather costly at over $3 million a piece.

The Air Force remains interested in developing more affordable munitions for maritime strikes. And while QUICKSINK fits some of the criteria, it ultimately lacks some of the characteristics that would otherwise make it a front-running weapon of choice in battle.

“QUICKSINK could be another arrow in the Air Force’s quiver of anti-ship munitions,” Gunzinger said. “But it is unlikely to become its mainstay weapon for maritime strikes in contested operational environments.”