B-2 bomber’s missile upgrade ‘could threaten’ PLA warships: military analyst
- US defence firm reveals it tested the extended-range weapons in December as part of a series of improvements to the stealth bomber
- However, the missiles are easier for China to intercept than hypersonic weapons, according to Beijing-based commentator
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 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.
“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.
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