The US just showed it can stealthily sink an 820-foot ship with a low-cost bomb, and China is scrambling to say it's not impressed

• The US sank a decommissioned ship in the Pacific using a low-cost bomb from a B-2 stealth bomber.
• The USS Tarawa, a 39,000-ton amphibious assault ship, was sunk on July 19.
• China criticized the exercise, calling it a show of power and questioning its effectiveness.

As part of the 2024 Exercise Rim of the Pacific, the US managed to sink the decommissioned USS Tarawa on July 19.

The ship, an amphibious assault ship that weighed 39,000 tons and was the size of an aircraft carrier, was in service from 1976 to 2009.

In a first, the bomb was dropped from a US Air Force B-2 stealth bomber , one of the most sophisticated and lethal aircraft in the US military's arsenal.

As part of the live-fire sinking exercise, dubbed SINKEX, the USS Tarawa was sunk more than 50 nautical miles off the northern coast of Hawaii's Kauai island, the US Navy 3rd Fleet said in a press release on July 23 .

"This capability is an answer to an urgent need to quickly neutralize maritime threats over massive expanses of ocean around the world at minimal costs," the press release said.

American, South Korean, Dutch, Australian, and Malaysian forces participated in SINKEX this year.

China is scrambling to say that the US's sinking exercise was insignificant

Although the US Navy did not mention that the exercise was targeted at China, the Asian country was quick to take offense.

The Global Times, a state-aligned Chinese news outlet, said in a commentary on Saturday that the exercise "is clearly aimed at China."

It said that China was "the only country deemed as 'enemy' by the US that operates a 40,000-ton amphibious assault ship in the Asia-Pacific region."

The Global Times slammed the exercise, saying it was a "big show" by the US to "prove its power."

It also called into question how effective the operation was.

"The USS Tarawa is an amphibious assault ship that served in the US from 1976 to 2009," the outlet said. "Such an outdated ship cannot be compared with modern military equipment."

The SINKEX operation comes as China's navy fleet grows and poses a threat to the South China region.

China has overtaken the US Navy in fleet size. According to the Pentagon's 2023 China Military Power Report , its fleet has about 370 vessels. By contrast, the US fleet is down to just under 300 ships.

Representatives for the US Navy did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.