We’ve talked about Quicksink before, which takes a “dumb” bomb and adds a guidance kit to it to make a ship-hungry LGB, essentially a “Maritime JDAM.” The Air Force has been stacking up wrecks off the Florida coast at a steady pace.
Why the big deal about a 500-pound Quicksink? Capacity, baby.
A single B-52, in theory, could carry as many as 24 such munitions internally in its post-IWBU carriage, while a B-2 could tote a staggering 80. Speaking of Naval Air, a P-8 Poseidon could carry at least five internally, while an F-18E/F could carry a dozen, albeit with a much shorter range, while the F-35 could carry a six-pack in its weapons bay.
“Quicksink offers an affordable, game-changing solution to rapidly and efficiently sink maritime targets,” said Col. Dan Lehoski, 53rd Wing commander. “AFRL’s 500-pound Quicksink variant adds options for the warfighter and enhances operational flexibility.”
“Rapidus Obruo” = I am overwhelmed by the rapidity
Since debuting its low-cost, air-delivered QuickSink system in late 2021, the Air Force has put it to good use in a series of destructive live ordnance tests.
While the guidance kit is modular and can fit anything from 500 to 2,000-pound bombs, it has been showcased from F-15Es using big GBU-31/B JADAMs, which hit the 2,120-pound mark.
Now JDAMs have been used a lot in SINKEXs over the past couple of decades but never had the same sort of dramatic effect as QuickSink– ex-USS Schenectady (LST-1185) took no less than seven 2,000-pound JDAMs during Resultant Fury in November 2004 and remained defiantly afloat.
The key is that QuickSink seems to aim for below-the-waterline hull hits akin to the old “Diving Shells” of WWII. After testing with B-52s in 2020 and then verifying the “Maritime JDAM” by F-15Es in August 2021, the Air Force started planning bigger exercises.
The first widely published QuickSink strike experiment was in April 2022 when an F-15E out of Eglin splashed the old 189-foot coaster M/V Courageous (ex-M/V Homborsund) off Destin, cracking it neatly in half with a single well-placed piece of ordnance.
Granted, Billy Mitchell probably could have done the same thing with his Martin MB-2 biplanes in 1921, but he didn’t have Go-Pros.
Then, in January 2023, BAE Systems got the $12 million Phase 2 contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to further develop a low-cost, all-weather, multi-mode (radar/infrared) open architecture seeker for the program.
The second big QuickSink test was on the ex-USS Tarawa during RIMPAC ’24– of which no footage has been released. The aircraft involved was reportedly a B-2, again dropping a 2,000-pound QuickSink-enabled GBU-31/B.
It would be neat to know if the RIMPAC QuickSink test took place under the cover of darkness from 40,000 feet, allowing a seriously decent reach. Keep in mind that, while JDAM has a “published range” of 15nm, the JDAM-ER program looks to double that to 72km or more.
It is not clear what aircraft/ordnance combo was used in the daylight sinking but it was likely another F-15E from Eglin’s 85th Test & Evaluation Squadron.
While Deep Six-ing smallish commercial freighters may look dramatic, the world wonders what QuickSink could do against a good-sized warship built to naval standards, which is likely why no images have been released on Tarawa’s brush with the maritime JDAM.
Billy Mitchell would surely be curious to see that footage.
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