US to deploy new mid-range missile system in Asia-Pacific by end of year, top general says

Reports suggest the system will be the state-of-the-art Typhon, capable of firing high-speed anti-shipping projectiles or Tomahawk cruise missiles
Analysts say its deployment is aimed at countering threats from North Korea and China, likely as part of a testing and training process

Japan

Julian Ryall

Published: 8:30am, 9 Apr 2024

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The United States is set to deploy a new medium-range missile launch system to the Asia-Pacific before the end of the year, according to the US Army Pacific’s commanding general, with reports suggesting it will be the state-of-the-art Typhon system that can address threats from North Korea and China.

Deploying the system to the Asia-Pacific is likely to be part of the testing and training process, an analyst told This Week in Asia. The first prototypes of the Typhon were delivered to the US Army in November 2022.

“There is limited data available about Typhon and I expect this is part of the ongoing development process, to get it in-theatre to see how it performs,” said Garren Mulloy, an international-relations professor at Japan’s Daito Bunka University and a specialist in military issues.

“New systems generally perform well on test ranges in deserts in the US, where they are not affected by the maritime climate, the high humidity of the Asia-Pacific region,” he pointed out. “The US army is going to want to see how it performs in more testing conditions and to start training the units that will operate it.”

General Charles Flynn, the commanding general of the US Army Pacific, speaks at Vandal Training Center in Camp Humphreys in South Korea. Photo: EPA-EFE

Initial reports that the US was preparing to station its new mid-range capability launcher in the region first emerged in November last year, when General Charles Flynn, the US Army Pacific’s commanding general, said at the Halifax International Security Forum that two Typhon batteries had been completed.

“In 2024, we intend to deploy that system in the region,” he said.

Flynn reiterated that commitment in an interview with Japanese media in Tokyo on Wednesday last week, but did not reveal a timeline.

The Asahi newspaper quoted a US government source on Thursday, confirming it to be the Typhon and that batteries will initially be based in Guam, with deployment to Japan for training.

To justify the deployment, the US can use North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s threats to attack US military facilities on Guam and similar bellicose statements against Japan, a close ally of Washington, Mulloy said, although Pyongyang is not the real cause of concern.

“In the past, Japan has been in line with the US to address ‘the North Korean threat’ because it’s easy to identify that threat,” he said.

“But the subtext here is that they are really talking about China,” he added. “North Korea is easy to identify as an enemy because it’s basically a James Bond-villain state, but the reality is that there is a much more complex and nuanced threat that is both military and economic coming from China.”

A Typhon unit consists of a mobile operations centre, up to four autonomous mobile launchers, reload trailers and a support vehicle. The launchers are designed to fire either the Standard Missile 6, which can target enemy aircraft or inbound missiles and function as a high-speed anti-shipping weapon, or the Tomahawk cruise missile.

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The Tomahawk has a range of 1,600km (994 miles), which places it between the US’ Precision Strike Missile that has a range of around 805km (500 miles) and the long-range hypersonic weapon that went into service last year and has a range of nearly 2,800km (1,740 miles).

The deployment of a capable new weapons system in the Western Pacific is unlikely to be ignored by Washington’s rivals in the region, with China, Russia and North Korea all likely to express fears of an intensifying arms race in the region, Mulloy said.

“Deployment might be tricky in terms of arms control treaties that have been signed,” he said. “There are various Cold War treaties that cover the deployment of missile systems and while some have lapsed or been effectively abandoned, there are some who will argue that bringing Typhon into the Asia-Pacific region will be in breach of a treaty.”

And while the system may be designed to keep China at bay, Russia is “obviously not far away and Moscow is extremely sensitive about any military technology that comes into ‘their area’, and that includes Japan”, he said.