[Discussion] B-2 Conducts First Public LRASM Strike in Pacific SINKEX

B-2 Conducts First Publicly Acknowledged LRASM Live-Fire

A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber launched an AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile during a live-fire sinking exercise on June 27, 2026, marking the first publicly acknowledged operational LRASM employment from the B-2. The bomber, assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing, struck the decommissioned Austin-class amphibious transport dock USS Juneau (LPD-10) north of the Mariana Islands in the Philippine Sea.

The event took place during Exercise Valiant Shield 2026 and expands the B-2's publicly demonstrated mission set to include long-range maritime strike. The aircraft has already been used for nuclear deterrence, conventional strike, penetrating land attack, and stand-off missile employment. One report identified the aircraft as B-2A Spirit of South Carolina (88-0331).

What the Exercise Demonstrated

The SINKEX paired the B-2's low-observable design with the LRASM's long-range anti-ship capability. The exercise also served as a test of a broader distributed maritime strike architecture in which multiple platforms can contribute to the same anti-surface mission from different ranges and directions.

The USAF describes the launch as verification of a joint, multi-domain kill chain against a real ship target rather than a simplified aim point. That sequence included detection, tracking, identification, weapon assignment, routing, launch clearance, missile release, terminal acquisition, and battle damage assessment. The event also required coordination among bombers, submarines, surface ships, maritime patrol aircraft, carrier aviation, ISR assets, and space-based systems.

Valiant Shield 2026 and Participating Forces

Valiant Shield 2026 ran from June 21 to July 1 across Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Japan, and the Mariana Islands Range Complex. It was the eleventh iteration of the biennial exercise first held in 2006, and the second conducted as a fully multinational event.

Participating countries were the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. All U.S. military services took part alongside U.S. Space Command and U.S. Transportation Command. Major assets listed in the source material included the USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group, JS Kaga, JS Fuyuzuki, JS Jingei, HMCS Charlottetown, P-8A Poseidon aircraft, submarines, strategic bombers, and multi-domain ISR platforms.

LRASM Capabilities and Integration

The AGM-158C LRASM is an anti-ship derivative of the AGM-158B JASSM-ER. It weighs about 2,760 pounds, carries a 1,000-pound WDU-42/B penetrating blast-fragmentation warhead, and has an estimated range of 500 nautical miles. The missile uses GPS, inertial navigation, and onboard sensor-aided guidance, with passive radio-frequency sensing and imaging infrared for target search and discrimination. Its design is intended to function in contested maritime environments where communications may be degraded, and GPS may be jammed.

LRASM became operational on the B-1B in 2018 and on the U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F in 2019. Flight-science testing for F-35C integration ran from September 2024 to April 2026. Additional future or continuing integration paths listed in the source material include the F-35B/C, P-8A Poseidon, F-15E, and F-15EX.

Why the B-2 Role Matters

The B-2 offers a different launch option from other LRASM carriers. While the B-1B can carry larger missile salvos, the B-2 adds low observability and long-range penetration options. The bomber has an unrefueled range of more than 6,900 miles and a payload capacity of up to 40,000 pounds, allowing it to contribute to anti-ship operations from long distances or from forward locations such as Guam and Diego Garcia.

The June 2026 launch also follows the B-2's 2024 QUICKSINK demonstration, in which the aircraft used modified JDAMs in a maritime strike role. Together, those events show a growing B-2 contribution to U.S. anti-surface warfare in the Pacific.

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