Extended-range stealthy missiles carried by B-2 bombers could give the United States an edge against Chinese warships if the military giants entered a direct confrontation, according to a military affairs analyst.
US defence firm Northrop Grumman revealed last week that a December test launch of a stealthy missile from the B-2 bomber had been successful. Other US warplanes, including the B-52 and F-16, had previously carried the AGM-158B JASSM-ER missiles, but they had never been mounted on the B-2 before.
The air-to-surface cruise missiles would extend the reach of the stealth bomber to strike targets from farther away with a hard-to-detect weapon, Northrop Grumman said.
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The defence contractor said the extended-range missile was part of a series of upgrades to the B-2 bomber that included modernising cryptographic standards and installing a new radar-assisted targeting system.
“The unrivalled capabilities of the B-2 make it the only long-range, penetrating stealth bomber currently in the US arsenal,” Shaugnessy Reynolds, the firm’s vice-president and manager of the B-2 programme, said in a statement.
Fu Qianshao, a retired People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force equipment specialist, said the AGM-158B missile had a range of nearly 1,000km (621 miles) and “could threaten PLA warships”.
“The PLA would need to push forward to the western Pacific Ocean to warn off the planes,” Fu said, describing a scenario in which B-2 bombers arrive from the US Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.
In recent years, the US Air Force has sent its B-2 bombers, which are capable of delivering nuclear weapons, from their home base in Missouri to the Asia-Pacific.
In 2020, three bombers arrived at Diego Garcia island in the Indian Ocean to support “US security commitments in the Indo-Pacific region”.
In July, two B-2 bombers flew to Royal Australian Air Force Base Amberley for exercises with forces from Australia, a key US ally in the region.
The Pentagon has described China as a “pacing challenge” for the United States as the two countries disagree on a range of regional security issues, including the South China Sea, Taiwan and Ukraine.
The PLA’s technological advances, especially in the area of hypersonic weapons and space, have triggered concerns among top US defence officials.
China is desperate to find a successor for its H-6 bombers, which were first mass-produced in 1969. Its new-generation stealth bomber, the H-20, is still in development.
Newer members of the H-6 family, such as the H-6K, are designed for long-range attacks and can carry cruise missiles capable of striking targets thousands of kilometres away. The CJ-20 missile, for example, has a reported range of 2,200km.
Fu said the AGM-158B missiles were subsonic – travelling slower than sound – and were therefore easier for China to intercept. But the US would only deploy the B-2 during the unlikely event of a direct confrontation with China, the Beijing-based commentator said.
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Last year, while serving as commander of the US Air Force Global Strike Command, General Timothy Ray told the US Senate that AGM-158B missiles were critical to ensure nuclear bombers were capable of fighting wars.
The standard AGM-158 missile has a range of only 370km – around one-third that of the extended-range variant tested in December.
The AGM-158B’s extended range could allow bombers to launch missiles far from enemy territory.
The B-2 bomber was designed to be difficult for adversaries to detect, notably by using radar-absorbent materials and hiding its engines within its body. This allows the planes to get close to adversaries while launching missiles and dropping bombs.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Strategic bombers, aerial tankers part of ‘regular’ patrols near Taiwan, PLA says
- China’s H-6 bombers in show of air-navy coordination near southern Japan, military experts say
- Chinese PLA bombers carry out night raid drills around Taiwan and East China Sea
- China’s Xinjiang command puts updated missile to high-altitude test
- Taiwan and US renew Patriot-3 missile service contract
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