“Key to the demonstration is the Air Force Research Laboratory development of a Weapon Open Systems Architecture (WOSA) seeker for precision targeting of maritime surface vessels at a low-cost.”
That line alone explains why QUICKSINK will be of interest to both engineers and operators: It is not a totally new missile family, but rather a way to quickly transform weapons already delivered by air into something that can endanger not only those ships that dare remain still. Once closely linked to fixed target penetration strikes, the B-2 Spirit is now at the heart of a push to transform maritime strike into the more scalable, more networked, less-boutique-munition-favoring paradigm.
In its simplest form, QUICKSINK is a Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD), which is an integration of an off-the-shelf JDAM guidance kit with a novel nose-mounted seeker based on Weapon Open Systems Architecture. The engineering bet is modularity: retain the widely deployed tailkit and bomb body, but have a flexible sensor package, capable of being swapped, upgraded, and integrated across the range of weapon sizes and across weapon platforms. The framing as well of AFRL makes a vivid line upon intent: QUICKSINK “is not a mine” and it is designed to have immediate impacts upon stationary or moving maritime targets.
The most important technical breakthrough is the transition towards target-recognition and endgame steering rather than coordinate-oriented bombing. Standard JDAMs are flown GPS-aided INS by a pre-determined set of latitude and longitude, QUICKSINK has an imaging infrared seeker that may be activated during the terminal phase. Under the concept of operation described in the Air Force, the weapon is guided to an area of attack and the seeker is used to search and identify a ship, including in a database of its own before producing course corrections to direct the detonation near the hull-frequently called targeting near the waterline or below it to cause more effective damage mechanisms.
It was also that sequence that accounts in part as to why stealth aircraft are such a natural match. An example of the unpowered glide distance of a basic JDAM is some 15 miles, meaning that the launch platform may be forced to act within a shorter radius than it would with long-range cruise missiles. The geometry is compensated by the survivability of a B-2, its range, and its flexibility in the payload and the depth of the magazine alters the equations of a raid. It has a maximum payload of approximately 60,000 pounds, and the ability to carry up to 80 500 pound-class JDAMs which becomes strategically significant when the munition in question can be directed both towards ships and fixed targets.
The other half of the story is interoperability.
The key operational concept is sensor-to-shooter networking within and as well as among services, and more and more partners. The B-2 can be used as a high-payload striker and Navy or coalition aircraft can be used to develop the maritime picture and cueing. The pictures and official words surrounding a recent protest underline that direction, with the Air Force mentioning the B-2 and its maritime-strike capabilities and the importance of allied access and integration. Norwegian aircraft aided a B-2 QUICKSINK mission during one publicly acknowledged occasion, with Royal Norwegian Air Force F-35A and P-8A airplanes involved, which highlights the fact that the concept enjoys offboard sensing and beyond-line-of-sight coordination well.
The most significant impactful engineering capability of QUICKSINK is possibly what it is about to permit: a seeker architecture, capable of scaling to 2,000-pound GBU-31 and 500-pound GBU-38-class weapons, possibly even larger. In the case of the B-2, it consists of a stealthy platform capable of delivering both accuracy and volume to maritime strike planning, and the greater force as a whole an avenue of transforming already-familiar bomb bodies into a moving-target weapon without having to recreate the entire kill chain anew,
