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how big a threat is the us military's deployment of intermediate-range missiles in japan?

2024-09-13

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[global times comprehensive report] after the us military deployed the land-based "typhon" medium-range missile system on the philippine island of luzon under the pretext of holding joint exercises with the philippines, the pentagon recently repeated the same trick and planned to deploy this medium-range missile system in japan during joint exercises with the japanese self-defense forces.

the u.s. army reconnaissance website reported on the 11th that the japan times recently quoted u.s. army secretary christina wormuth as saying that the u.s. military intends to deploy the typhoon intermediate-range missile system during joint exercises with japan. she said that she had recently discussed with japanese defense minister kihara minoru the possibility of allowing the u.s. multi-domain task force equipped with the typhoon system to participate in joint exercises between the united states and japan, and emphasized that any such action would be carried out "at the pace of the japanese government."

the typhon system, which can launch tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of 1,800 kilometers and standard missile-6 long-range air defense missiles with a range of 460 kilometers, was deployed to the indo-pacific region for the first time in april and participated in the us-philippines joint military exercise held in northern philippines. this is the first time that the united states has deployed a land-based intermediate-range missile system overseas since withdrawing from the us-russia intermediate-range missile treaty in 2019. after being strongly opposed by many neighboring countries, the us military announced that the system will be withdrawn from the philippines within september.

the "typhon" system is the latest achievement of the united states' medium-range missiles. it is essentially a modification of the u.s. navy's mk41 vertical launch system for land-based mobile launch. the "tomahawk" cruise missile can fill the firepower gap between the u.s. army's precision strike missile (prsm) with a range of 482 kilometers and the "dark hawk" long-range hypersonic weapon with a range of 2,776 kilometers; and the "standard-6" air defense missile not only has the potential to intercept hypersonic missiles, but can also perform ground strike missions. it is a relatively cheap multi-purpose ground precision strike weapon.

although military observers generally believe that the tomahawk cruise missiles equipped with the typhon system are outdated and their penetration capability in the face of modern air defense systems is not ideal, and the ground attack range of the standard-6 is also very limited, but considering the versatility of the mk-41 system, it is not ruled out that the us military will equip the typhon system with more advanced long-range missiles in the future.

it is worth noting that the japanese media have recently launched a series of propaganda campaigns for the "us military's deployment of intermediate-range missile systems in japan." the report noted that japan's sankei shimbun recently said that the us government has proposed to deploy intermediate-range missiles, including hypersonic missiles and tomahawk cruise missiles, on the southern island of kyushu in japan. subsequently, the japanese ministry of defense stated that "the united states is not yet ready to deploy such missiles in japan." however, analysts believe that judging from the actual actions of the us military, the japanese media is likely to be laying the groundwork for the us military's related deployment plans.

according to the russian newspaper kommersant, alexander chekov, a lecturer at the department of international relations and foreign policy of the moscow institute of international relations, believes that "it is very attractive for the united states to deploy medium-range missiles in japan, because from there it can pose a threat to china, russia and north korea at the same time. even if the tomahawk missiles are launched from japanese territory, they can cover the entire territory of north korea, part of the russian far east, and northeastern and eastern china. if the missiles deployed by the united states have a longer range, the affected area will be further expanded." (chen shan)