US keeps missile system in Philippines as China tensions rise, tests wartime deployment
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A satellite image of the Typhon missile system deployed in northern Philippines, near Taiwan.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MANILA – The United States has no immediate plans to withdraw a mid-range missile system deployed in the Philippines despite Chinese demands and is testing the feasibility of its use in a regional conflict, sources with knowledge of the matter have said.
The Typhon system, which can be equipped with cruise missiles capable of striking Chinese targets, was brought in for joint exercises earlier in 2024, both countries said at the time – but it has remained there.
The Philippines, Taiwan’s neighbour to the south, is an important part of US strategy in Asia and will be an indispensable staging point for the military to aid Taipei in the event of a Chinese attack.
China and Russia condemned the move – the first deployment of the system to the Indo-Pacific – and accused Washington of fuelling an arms race.
Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said on Sept 19 it was very concerned about the plan to keep the system in place.
“It seriously threatens the security of regional countries and intensifies geopolitical confrontation,” ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters.
The deployment, some details of which have not been previously reported, comes as China and the Philippines clash over parts of the hotly contested South China Sea. Recent months have brought a series of sea and air confrontations
Philippine officials said Filipino and US forces continue to train with the missile system – which is in northern Luzon, which faces the South China Sea and is close to the Taiwan Strait – and that they were not aware of immediate plans to return it, even though the joint exercises end in September.
Philippine army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala said on Sept 18 that training was ongoing, and it was up to the US Army Pacific (Usarpac) to decide how long the missile system would stay.
According to a public affairs officer for Usarpac, the Philippine army said the Typhon could stay beyond September, and soldiers trained with it as recently as last week, engaging “in discussions over employing the system, with a focus on integrating host nation support”.
A senior Philippine government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, and another person familiar with the matter said the US and the Philippines were testing the feasibility of using the system there in the event of a conflict, trialling how well it worked in that environment.
The government official said the Typhon – a modular system, which is intended to be mobile and moved as needed – was in the Philippines for a “test on the feasibility of deploying it in a country so that, when the need arises, it could easily be deployed here”.
‘Sleepless nights’
The US army flew the Typhon, which can launch missiles such as SM-6 missiles and Tomahawks with a range exceeding 1,600km, to the Philippines in April, in what it called a “historic first” and a “significant step in our partnership with the Philippines”.
A note published at the time by the US Congressional Research Service, a policy institute of the US Congress, said it was “not known if this temporary deployment could eventually become permanent”.
In July, Col Dema-ala, the army spokesman, confirmed the Typhon missile launcher remained in the Philippines’ northern islands and said there was no specific date as to when it would be “shipped out”, correcting an earlier statement that it was due to leave in September.
A satellite image taken on Sept 18 by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite firm, showed the Typhon at Laoag International Airport, in Ilocos Norte province.
Dr Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Programme at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies, who analysed the image, said the system remained.
A Patriot missile system firing at a target during war drills between Philippine and US forces in 2023, dubbed Balikatan.
ST PHOTO: ANGIE DE SILVA
A senior government official said there were no immediate plans to withdraw it.
“If ever it will be pulled out, it is because the objective has been achieved, and it may be brought (back) in after all the repairs or the construction has been done,” the official said, adding that there was strategic value for Manila in keeping the system to deter China. “We want to give them sleepless nights.”
Anti-ship weapons
The US has been amassing a variety of anti-ship weapons in Asia as Washington attempts to catch up quickly in an Indo-Pacific missile race in which China has a big lead.
Although the US military has declined to say how many will be deployed in the Indo-Pacific region, more than 800 SM-6 missiles are due to be bought in the next five years, according to government documents outlining military purchases. Several thousand Tomahawks are already in US inventories, the documents showed.
China has denounced the deployment of the Typhon
Russian President Vladimir Putin in June cited the deployment
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo in July assured his Chinese counterpart that the presence of the missile system in his country posed no threat to China
China has fully militarised at least three of several islands it built in the South China Sea – which it mostly claims in full, despite a 2016 arbitral ruling that backed the Philippines – arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, the US has said.
Beijing says its military facilities in the Spratly Islands are purely defensive, and that it can do what it likes in its own territory. REUTERS
