B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber Fired Anti-Ship Missile During Pacific Exercise, Air Force Reveals

The U.S. Air Force has publicly disclosed for the first time that its B-2A Spirit stealth bomber can carry and fire the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, a capability demonstrated during Exercise Valiant Shield 2026.

June 30, 202618:431 min read

B-2 Fires Ship-Killing Cruise Missile, Air Force Reveals for First Time

Air & Space Forces Magazine

The U.S. Air Force confirmed on June 30, 2026, that a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber successfully employed the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) during a Pacific exercise three days earlier — the first time the service has publicly acknowledged the aircraft possesses that capability. Pacific Air Forces confirmed to The War Zone that the shot took place on June 27 as part of Exercise Valiant Shield 2026, a major U.S. military exercise in the Pacific★.

The target was the ex-USS Juneau, a decommissioned Austin-class amphibious warfare ship used in a sinking exercise, or SINKEX. The B-2 struck the vessel with the ship-killing cruise missile, demonstrating both the weapon's effectiveness and the bomber's newly disclosed maritime role.

The announcement's characterization as a "surprise" by The War Zone reflects how tightly held the integration program had been. The Air Force made no prior public statements about efforts to certify the LRASM on the B-2.★

Context Within a Broader Stand-Off Strike Push

This revelation fits a broader pattern Grovewire has tracked in recent months.

For naval planners in peer competitor nations, the strategic arithmetic has shifted.

★ AI inference: One or more analytical conclusions in this article were drawn by the AI from cited facts and are not directly stated in the cited sources.

Editorial auditpublish

This is a well-constructed, factually grounded briefing on a genuinely newsworthy military disclosure. The headline is accurate and restrained, the dek faithfully represents the body, and the reporting draws on three credible specialist defense outlets with direct PACAF confirmation. The framing is analytical rather than polemical — the piece explains strategic significance without cheerleading or alarming. One minor note: the final paragraph's conclusion that the Air Force chose disclosure to 'shape deterrence calculus rather than preserve tactical surprise' is reasonable inference but presented as near-certain fact; a hedge word would strengthen it. The brief also sits primarily in the air-power and naval-deterrence space rather than at the satcom/space intersection, but that is an upstream editorial matter. Overall the draft meets publishable standards.

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B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber Fired Anti-Ship Missile During Pacific Exercise, Air Force Reveals

Context Within a Broader Stand-Off Strike Push

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