Air Force Discloses B-2 Can Launch Stealth Anti-Ship Missiles In Surprise Announcement
One of the U.S. Air Force’s B-2 bombers fired an AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) during a recent live-fire sinking exercise (SINKEX) in the Western Pacific. The stealthy LRASM was not previously known to be in the B-2’s arsenal. Integration of the AGM-158C offers a huge boost in capability for the B-2, creating a penetrating fleet-killing platform that could be especially valuable in a future high-end fight in the Pacific against China.
“The Pacific Air Forces successfully conducted a live-fire Sinking Exercise using the B-2 Spirit north of the Mariana Islands. The B-2 deployed the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, demonstrating enhanced ability to achieve strategic objectives within range of potential threats,” according to a press release today from Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). “With the deployment of the LRASM from the B-2 Spirit, the Pacific Air Forces takes a major step forward in countering maritime threats. This milestone showcased impressive high-end innovation reinforcing the US military’s commitment to safeguarding national interests and maintaining global security.”
The release does not provide any further details about the SINKEX, but PACAF confirmed to TWZ directly that the B-2 fired the LRASM at the ex-USS Juneau, a decommissioned Austin class amphibious warfare ship, as part of Exercise Valiant Shield 2026. U.S. and allied forces taking part in the exercise pummeled the Juneau with various munitions this weekend, sending it to the bottom of the Pacific, roughly 200 nautical miles off the coast of Guam. An unnamed Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) submarine appears to have delivered the final blow with a heavyweight torpedo. The B-2’s involvement was not mentioned until today.
“Exercises like Valiant Shield allow U.S. Pacific Command the opportunity to integrate forces from all branches of service and with our allies to conduct precise, lethal, and overwhelming multi-domain effects that demonstrate the strength and versatility of the Joint Force and our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” a PACAF spokesperson told TWZ.
As noted, the B-2’s ability to fire LRASM at all does not appear to have been previously disclosed. When reached for comment, Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) told TWZ that all details about the integration of the missile onto the B-2 were classified, as was whether or not the SINKEX represented any kind of first for the bomber.
A review of the Pentagon’s 2027 Fiscal Year budget proposal does not appear to show any mention of LRASM integration on B-2, or plans to do so in the future. The only cleared launch platforms explicitly mentioned are the Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters and the U.S. Air Force’s B-1 bombers. Work has already been publicly underway to integrate LRASM onto the F-15E Strike Eagle, F-15EX Eagle II, F-16C/D Viper, at least certain variants of the F-35, and the P-8A Poseidon. Budget documents also mention plans to integrate the missile on the B-52 bomber.
The Air Force previously highlighted other efforts to expand the B-2’s anti-ship capabilities in the form of Quicksink precision-guided anti-ship bombs, which leverage the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit. You can read more about Quicksink here.
The AGM-158C is derived from the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) family of land-attack cruise missiles. The baseline AGM-158A JASSM and AGM-158B JASSM-Extended Range (JASSM-ER) are already known to be integrated onto the B-2. The B-2 is also known to be able to carry up to 16 AGM-158As, and is very likely capable of carrying the same number of JASSM-ERs and LRASMs, as all of these missiles have the same general form factor.
In terms of its general mode of operation, LRASM uses GPS-assisted Inertial Navigation System (INS) guidance to navigate first to a designated target area. The missile is highly autonomous, thanks to a built-in route planning capability that is linked to an onboard electronic support measures (ESM) package. The missile has the ability to automatically change course in response to the sudden emergence of enemy defenses based on their radio-frequency emissions, as well as use those signals to better detect potential targets.
After arriving in the target area, the missile’s imaging infrared sensor in the nose takes over for the terminal phase of flight. Using a built-in threat target library database, the seeker searches for and categorizes targets autonomously. Information in that database also helps steer the missile to hit the target ship at its most vulnerable point. As a passive sensor, the infrared seeker does not send out radio-frequency signals that an enemy could detect. It is also immune to radio-frequency jamming.
Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM)
LRASM also has a datalink that allows it to get threat updates while in flight. It can also work cooperatively with other LRASMs during coordinated strikes. A C-3 variant is now in development that will feature a boost in maximum range, as well as “C++ software, [an] enhanced BLOS [beyond-line-of-sight] Weapons Data Link, [and] advanced survivability” capabilities, according to previously released Navy budget documents. The range of existing versions of the LRASM is not publicly disclosed, but is reported to be between 200 and 300 miles, in line with the AGM-158A JASSM. The C-3 version is expected to have the same reach as the JASSM-ER, which is reported to be around 600 miles.
“With the deployment of the LRASM from the B-2 Spirit, the Pacific Air Forces takes a major step forward in countering maritime threats,” according to today’s release from that command. “This milestone showcased impressive high-end innovation reinforcing the US military’s commitment to safeguarding national interests and maintaining global security.”
“The B-2’s impressive performance underscores the US military’s commitment to adaptability and flexibility in the face of emerging security challenges,” Air Force Gen. Kevin B. Schneider, head of PACAF, also said in a statement. “By prioritizing counter-maritime strike operations, we can maintain a decisive edge over adversaries, protect our national interests and ensure the free and open Pacific that underpin our global security.”
As we noted right up front in this story, pairing the highly survivable and hard-to-spot B-2 with LRASM presents a new penetrating anti-ship capability. Each one of the bombers could engage multiple ships simultaneously and use their other attributes to get within range of even the most high-value targets, such as the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) growing fleet of aircraft carriers and big deck amphibious assault ships. LRASM’s range means that the bombers only need to be in hundreds of miles of their targets. As mentioned, the missiles themselves offer a high degree of survivability, as well.
We already know that the Air Force’s B-1 bomber crews have been training for years to use large LRASM barrages to decapitate major surface naval forces.
“LRASM plays a critical role in ensuring U.S. naval access to operate in both open-ocean and littoral environments due to its enhanced ability to discriminate between targets from long-range,” then-Lt. Col. Timothy Albrecht, said following B-1 training sorties over the Black Sea back in 2020. “With the increase of maritime threats and their improvement of anti-access/area-denial [A2/AD] environmental weapons, this stealthy anti-ship cruise missile provides reduced risk to strike assets by penetrating and defeating sophisticated enemy air-defense systems.”
At that time, Albrecht was a member of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe’s (USAFE) 603rd Air Operations Center and the Bomber Task Force mission planner.
The adversary A2/AD threat ecosystem globally has only continued to grow in scale and scope since then, and TWZ regularly calls attention to this reality. The PLA has already established significant A2/AD bubbles in the Pacific and continues to expand on those capabilities. In this context, the public disclosure of the B-2’s LRASM capability around Valiant Shield in the Pacific can also be seen as sending a message aimed straight at Beijing, just as the U.S. military has done with previous long-range weapon tests in the region in the past.
The fact that LRASM has been integrated onto the B-2 also points to future anti-ship capabilities on the forthcoming B-21 Raider fleet. The B-21 is notably smaller than the B-2, and will be able to carry less ordnance as a result, but the Air Force also plans to buy at least 100 of them, if not substantially more. The Raider is also expected to have extreme unrefueled range. Air Force officials talk regularly about what all this will mean for future operations compared to what is offered today by the still highly capable, but much smaller fleet of just 19 B-2s.
What has been revealed already is that the Air Force now has a very capable, long-range, deep-penetrating delivery platform capable of delivering its most capable and hard-to-detect anti-ship missiles.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com