For subscribers

News analysis

Japan will be in line of fire in a Taiwan crisis under plan to deploy US missiles to south-west islands

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox

Original caption: Members of the US military (right) prepare the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) during the Super Garuda Shield 2024 joint military exercise including Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Britain and the US in Situbondo, East Java on September 6, 2024. (Photo by JUNI KRISWANTO / AFP)

A key policy of the US-Japan joint operations plan is the deployment of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System to Japan’s Nansei island chain.

PHOTO: AFP

Follow topic:

The pieces of the strategic puzzle of how the US and its security allies, Japan and the Philippines, will respond to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan are falling into place.

Under an operations plan, it will reportedly involve the deployment of sophisticated US missile units to the theatre of war.

See more on