For decades, there has only been one conventional weapon
capable of completely destroying an enemy warship in a single hit:
the torpedo. Still, recent footage taken by the US Air Force shows a new imposing weapon that
aims to have the same effect on enemy vessels… but this time the projectile drops from the sky.
The so-called ‘Quicksink’ bomb is designed as an intelligent and inexpensive solution
to engage naval targets with the same destructive power as a torpedo,
but with the crucial particularity that it is deployed from a warplane.
The eye-opening footage shows a large cargo ship stationed in the Gulf of Mexico
when, in a split second, a projectile falls right beside her, exploding underwater.
The massive cargo ship is then torn in half by the potent blast in a spectacular display of power,
representing a highly significant moment in US military history
that could radically transform the future of naval warfare…
A Rival to the Torpedo
Torpedoes have been the go-to-choice when seeking to disable enemy ships in a quick
and reliable way. Other than a few specialized high-yield explosives,
the torpedo remains one of the only ways to sink a warship with a single shot.
As effective as torpedoes have proven to be, they are an expensive and challenging solution.
Major Andrew Swanson, 85th TES division chief of Advanced Programs, explained: (QUOTE)
“Heavy-weight torpedoes are effective at sinking large ships
but are expensive and employed by a small portion of naval assets.”
Because the Navy only has a limited number of ships capable of launching
torpedoes and the devices being so expensive to produce and maintain,
the US military has found itself with limited options to swiftly neutralize large ships.
To address this issue, the US Air Force, in partnership with the US Navy,
developed the Quicksink program, which seeks to provide new options
to rapidly neutralize naval surface targets at minimal costs while also
demonstrating the intrinsic flexibility of the joint force in combat scenarios.
The Quicksink Program
The Quicksink program has already produced a promising first application
that might open an entire array of similar solutions for the US military.
The initial iteration is a modified 2,000-pound GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition
altered with a guidance kit that converts the conventional projectile
into an intelligent bomb capable of correcting its course.
The guidance conversion kits are relatively cheap to produce, and they drastically improve
the projectile’s accuracy and capabilities. Despite being dropped from above, the bomb is
designed to detonate below a ship’s hull in order to attain similar results to those of a torpedo.
As the projectile is dropped from the aircraft, its guidance system
adjusts its course to hit the water just beside the target vessel. Once underwater,
the payload detonates below the ship’s hull, perforating it or ripping it apart
to facilitate the expeditious sinking of the enemy ship.
Swanson would further explain the advantages of the new technology:
(QUOTE) “With Quicksink, we have demonstrated a low-cost and more agile solution
that has the potential to be employed by the majority of Air Force combat aircraft,
providing combatant commanders and warfighters with more options.”
The breakthrough provides the US Military with an additional solution against naval threats,
but it also does it in a more cost-efficient way and with the ability to endow almost any warplane
with the destructive power of a torpedo.
Cheap and Effective
On April 28, 2022, the US Air Force Research Laboratory and Eglin Air
Force Base’s Integrated Test Team conducted a test with the preliminary Quicksink bomb.
The payload was delivered via an F-15E Strike Eagle, which released the modified 2,000-pound
GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition over a large cargo ship in the Gulf of Mexico.
This test was the second experiment in the
Quicksink Joint Capability Technology Demonstration,
with the first time taking place at an undisclosed location somewhere in the recent past.
The April test was a joint effort between the Air Force Research Laboratory, the 780th Test
Squadron of the 96th Test Wing and the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron of the 53rd Wing,
and financed by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
Colonel Tony Meeks, director of Air Force Research Laboratory’s Munitions Directorate,
explained the reason for developing such a weapon: (QUOTE) “Quicksink is an answer to
an urgent need to neutralize maritime threats to freedom around the world. The men and women
of this directorate consistently find ways to solve our nation’s greatest challenges.”
The experiment conducted in April used Joint Direct Attack Munition,
a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs into all-weather precision-guided munitions able to
adjust their course mid-fall in order to strike the target in the most efficient possible way.
In it, the conventional munitions are fitted with a GPS-assisted Interial Navigation System,
which allows them to identify their exact position in real time as well as the position of their
target; thus, even if the target is moving, the bomb is able to reach it to deliver its payload.
In contrast to torpedoes, which are also capable of sinking ships with a single hit
but often reveal the location of the firing submarine, Quicksink devices leave the deploying
aircraft safe from a counterattack, as they can immediately leave the area.
Kirk Herzog, the Air Force Research Laboratory program manager, elaborated on their goals:
(QUOTE) “A Navy submarine has the ability to launch and destroy a ship
with a single torpedo at any time, but the ‘Quicksink’ aims to develop a low-cost method
of achieving torpedo-like kills from the air at a much higher rate and over a much larger area.”
The whole idea boils down to reducing costs and risks,
as air-dropped payloads make counter-offensives much harder to execute. Even if the target is
able to successfully engage the warplane, its crew is smaller and might be able to escape.
In contrast, a submarine crew might suffer more severe losses.
Furthermore, a single F-15EX aircraft costs 87.7 million dollars, whereas a US submarine
can cost up to 2.8 billion dollars per unit, making submarine torpedo attacks
even riskier and potentially more costly than the Quicksink solution.
A Spectacular Test
The footage released by the US military shows the empty cargo
ship floating in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
A Joint Direct Attack Munition then drops from the sky right beside the old cargo ship.
The bomb seems to burst just below the waterline, releasing the blast underneath
the ship where her armor is the lightest. The explosion immediately splits the vessel in half,
and she sinks in fractions of a minute.
Had the explosive hit the deck instead of the ship’s underbelly,
an immediate sinking would have been less likely,
as decks tend to be heavily reinforced and the ships are often able to continue operating.
Thus, the novel technology has taken everything that makes a torpedo so
effective and lethal to enemy ships and applied it to an airborne solution,
drastically reducing the costs of deployment as well as the risk to the lives of US servicemen
while retaining the impressive power that can sink a ship in just a few seconds.
If the program continues to thrive, many other types of Quiksink solutions will emerge,
polished for different combat scenarios and fine-tuned to counter specific maritime threats.
Thank you for watching our video! Do you think this technology has the potential to
render the torpedo obsolete? Please share your thoughts in the comment section down below!
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