US to deploy more cutting-edge missile systems to the Philippines
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The US deployed its Typhon missile system, which can fire multi-purpose rockets, to the Philippines in 2024.
ST PHOTO: FILE
MANILA – The US will deploy more missile systems to the Philippines, a move that will potentially anger China, as Washington and Manila boost their defence ties.
Both the US and the Philippines have committed to “continue and work to increase deployments of US cutting-edge missile and unmanned systems to the Philippines”, according to a joint statement on Feb 17, following a meeting of senior officials in Manila on Feb 16.
The US deployed its Typhon missile system
Beijing has said the weapon “could be destabilising”.
In 2025, the US sent its NMESIS anti-ship missile system to the Philippines during friendly annual military drills. They included exercises in northern Luzon and the Batanes islands, areas close to Taiwan.
Washington has supported Manila’s pushback against China’s expansive claims in the resource-rich South China Sea, parts of which the Philippines sees as its exclusive economic zone.
Both sides condemn China’s “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive activities in the South China Sea” and recognise their “adverse effects on regional peace and stability”, the US State Department said in a dispatch released by the US Embassy in Manila on Feb 17.
Asked on Feb 16 whether the Typhon missile system is still on Philippine soil, Manila’s army chief, Lieutenant-General Antonio Nafarrete, said: “That’s an operational security question.”
Other agreements reached between the US and the Philippines at the Feb 16 gathering include the holding of a fifth “2+2” meeting between defence and foreign affairs officials of the two nations in the US later in 2026.
Also on the cards for 2026 is the first Luzon Economic Corridor forum in Manila to drive new investment. Its inaugural project would be a freight rail to link two former US military bases on the main Philippine island of Luzon.
The economic corridor was initially launched in 2024 after former US president Joe Biden met leaders from Japan and the Philippines. BLOOMBERG.
