Manila: The US Army will not conduct a live-fire operation of its Mid-Range Capability missile system, known as Typhon, during exercises in the Philippines this spring, according to the service commander in charge of US Army Pacific operations.
“We are not planning to conduct live-fire in the Philippines right now,” Maj Gen Jeffrey VanAntwerp, deputy chief of staff of operations, plans and training at US Army Pacific, told reporters in a media briefing.
The news comes almost a year after the Army’s 1st Multi-Domain Task Force transported a Typhon launcher to Luzon, Philippines, as part of that year’s Salaknib exercise — marking the first time the new capability, deemed vital to the US Army’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific, had been deployed. The missile system travelled more than 8,000 miles from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, aboard a C-17 Globemaster cargo aircraft on a 15-hour flight.
Typhon has since remained in the country, angering China, which has criticized the move and warned it could destabilise the region. Officials have yet to fire the missile system in the Philippines.
It is unclear how long Typhon will remain in the Philippines or if it will go elsewhere in the Pacific theatre.
In response to a question on where the system might be headed next, VanAntwerp said, “We’re making plans, but I have to defer to [the Office of the Secretary of Defence].”
The Lockheed Martin-built system, consisting of a vertical launch system that uses the Navy’s Raytheon-built Standard Missile-6 and Tomahawk missiles, can strike targets in the 500 to 2,000 kilometre range. The complete system has a battery operations centre, four launchers, prime movers and modified trailers.
The missile system is capable of sinking ships, hitting land targets at long ranges and is “mobile and survivable,” VanAntwerp said.
As part of this year’s Salaknib and Balikatan military drills between the US and the Philippines, the Philippine Navy plans to fire C-Star, Spike Non-Line-of-Sight and Mistral missiles. The country’s military will not fire its Brahmos medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile, which has a higher price point per shot.
Typhon’s presence in the Philippines has prompted other countries in the Pacific region to inquire about the possibility of hosting the weapon system, a US defence official recently said.
The Army knew Typhon would have a strong deterrent effect, but didn’t expect it to have an effect as great as has been observed over the past year, the official said, particularly in rattling China.
The biggest challenge now is transporting the capability around the Pacific — if the desire is to rotate it in and out of countries — due to the high costs of moving equipment, the official said.
Meanwhile, the Army’s 3rd MDTF, headquartered in Hawaii, is slated to soon receive its Typhon battery, which the service has certified at JBLM.
“We’re constantly looking for opportunities to exercise capability like that forward in theatre,” Col Michael Rose, the 3rd MDTF commander, said recently. “We learn enormous lessons by bringing capability into the theatre.”
Rose said the Army anticipates the Typhon supporting Operation Pathways, a series of year-round exercises designed to strengthen cooperation with regional allies and deter China.
