US Navy, Air Force making waves with new weapons at RIMPAC

This year’s Rim of the Pacific exercises — more commonly known as RIMPAC — saw several notable accomplishments. RIMPAC is the world’s largest maritime warfare exercise, designed to prepare the U.S. and its allies for war in one of the most massive places on the planet: the Pacific Ocean.

RIMPAC 2024 saw 25,000 warfighters from 29 different nations participate. To get there, 40 surface ships, 3 submarines and more than 150 aircraft also took part in this year’s exercises. Not to mention all the equipment and gear from the 14 national land forces taking part as well.

This year’s event really focused on joint operations in every sense of the phrase. So, integrated dive teams practiced recovery operations, partner nations cross-trained on urban search and rescue, fast roping, and anti-mining techniques. But the biggest event is always the sinking exercise, or SINKEX.

This year’s RIMPAC featured two SINKEXs.

The decommissioned U.S. Navy vessels USS Dubuque and USS Tarawa were both blown apart at RIMPAC 2024 by some of the latest and greatest maritime weaponry available.

So how were they sunk? For starters, GA Aeronautical’s MQ-9B SeaGuardian provided the fleet with the intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting of the ships. With a ceiling of 40,000 feet, the SeaGuardian is an unmanned eye-in-the-sky. An eye which can also drop bombs, or as seen at this year’s RIMPAC, sonobuoys, which are remote devices used to track enemy movements in and below the water.

Once the signal intelligence from the SeaGuardian made its way to the fleet forces, the live fire missions could begin.

For the first time, the world saw what a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer outfitted with a Naval Strike Missile launcher looked like. The USS Fitzgerald, an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer, fired the Norwegian-designed NSM. An Australian destroyer also test-fired an NSM, which is known for its ability to skim the seas during flight before striking, staying under enemy radar and avoiding detection.

The Navy said it also used one of its Common Unmanned Surface Vessels , or CUSVs, to test-fire Poniard rockets during the SINKEX drills.

Made in South Korea, Poniards are considered low-cost options for dealing with smaller, faster moving surface threats.

This year’s RIMPAC really focused on “joint operations,” which means combining various elements and forces from different departments — maybe from different militaries — and putting it all under a single command structure. For instance, a Navy commander ordering an Air Force bomber to strike an enemy surface vessel is an example of a joint operation. So, RIMPAC practiced that too.

Using the same sort of guidance systems for dropping bombs on land, the Air Force said one of its B-2 stealth bombers proved at RIMPAC the service is very close to fielding "a low-cost, air-delivered method for defeating surface vessels." Called QUICKSINK, the tech isn’t necessarily new, but it’s not fully operational yet either. Once it is, QUICKSINK munitions could be a relatively low-cost way to disrupt an enemy’s day on the water.

Lockheed Martin’s new Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile — the LRASM — was also employed during the SINKEXs. Unveiled earlier in 2024, the LRASM promises to get the job done with little care given to the enemy’s electronic warfare countermeasures. LRASMs don’t rely on GPS for navigation. So once they find a target, they tend to hit it.

And after months of rumors and speculation, there is now some confirmation. Images emerged during RIMPAC of Navy jet fighters sporting SM-6 missiles. Although, in that setup, it’s called the AIM-174B, signifying its primary use in air-to-air missions.

Why does it matter? Well, the SM-6 , or Standard Missile-6, is described as three missiles in one. It is able to perform anti-air and anti-surface warfare, as well as take out ballistic missiles if necessary. Its exact range is classified, but it is said to be over 200 miles when launched from the surface. A conservative figure from the Navy, no doubt.

But the same SM-6, now in an air-launched configuration, will be effective to a much further distance. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles.

So, any country thinking its planes are going to get anywhere close to U.S. ships — not happening. Also, the SM-6 is still capable of hitting ground targets and ballistic missiles , so the air launch component really takes the versatility on the SM-6 and cranks it to 11.

Taken individually, each one of these new weapons systems poses a significant threat to any adversary. When combined together and used in coordination with an international joint strike force, it starts to paint a picture of a force so strong, the thought of challenging it becomes absurd.

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