The US Navy's New Ship-Killers Got a Pacific Debut

From B-2 stealth bombers firing LRASMs to autonomous boats ramming hulks, RIMPAC 2026 put America's anti-ship arsenal on display.

By The Defense Desk

Two Pacific exercises this summer served as a live demonstration of the US military's expanding ship-sinking toolkit — stealth bombers, submarine torpedoes, and autonomous surface vessels included. [1]

On June 27, during Exercise Valiant Shield north of the Mariana Islands, a US Air Force B-2 bomber launched an AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) at the decommissioned amphibious transport dock Juneau — what appeared to be the first public launch of an LRASM from a B-2. [1]

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Making their RIMPAC debut were Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARCs), unmanned surface vessels built by Baltimore-based BlackSea Technologies. Pentagon footage showed at least one GARC surveying the badly damaged Peleliu before slamming into the target — what Lt. Sarah Weinstein, commanding officer of USV Division 32, described as the Navy's first GARC Live Fire during RIMPAC 2026. [1]

The exercises come weeks after the US Navy used unmanned vessels in combat: three Saronic Corsairs struck a small Iranian submarine undergoing maintenance at Bandar Abbas on July 13. [1]

The gap between exercise and operational use is closing fast. What gets tested on decommissioned hulks in peacetime is now being fired in anger.

The kill chain — detect, track, target, strike — is no longer a theoretical framework. It ran live, across multiple domains, with allies watching. [1]