米べい軍ぐん 新しん開発かいはつの中距離ちゅうきょりミサイルシステムを日本にっぽんに初はつ展開てんかい

The U.S. military is believed to be aiming to strengthen its deterrence by deploying a newly developed ground-launched intermediate-range missile system in Japan for the first time, thereby demonstrating the capability of missiles that can reach China from Japan.

The U.S. military has newly developed a ground-launched intermediate-range missile system called Typhon, which was unveiled to the media at the U.S. Iwakuni Base on the 15th.

The U.S. military has been conducting large-scale joint exercises with the Self-Defense Forces since the 11th of this month, carrying out drills in various locations such as Kyushu and Okinawa, assuming the defense of remote islands. In these exercises, for the first time, a ground-launched medium-range missile system was deployed to a Japanese base.

Typhon can launch Tomahawk cruise missiles, and if its the type with a range of 1,600 kilometers, it has the capability to reach the East China Sea and even parts of China from the Iwakuni base.

Regarding the aim of deployment to Japan, unit commander Wade German said, This time, we have the opportunity to conduct rigorous and realistic training together with the Self-Defense Forces, and we are confirming our readiness to fight if necessary.

“At the Iwakuni base, this will be an opportunity to test various operational methods of deploying Typhoons at both the air base and the port,” he said.

On the other hand, regarding this development, China has stated that it firmly rejects it, while Russia has said it is an action that will lead to further instability, and both countries are intensifying their opposition.

The development of Typhon is driven by a sense of crisis regarding the Chinese military. The U.S. militarys Typhon is a newly developed, mobile, ground-launched, medium-range missile system operated by the U.S. Armys Multi-Domain Task Force, which conducts operations across various domains.

The system can launch the cruise missile Tomahawk and the surface-to-air missile SM6.

The United States, under the INF Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed with the former Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, has not possessed ground-launched intermediate-range missiles, while China has focused on the production and deployment of intermediate-range missiles and is analyzed to possess at least 1,800 of them.

For this reason, the U.S. military has become increasingly alarmed by the significant gap in intermediate-range missile capabilities between itself and the Chinese military. After the expiration of the INF Treaty in 2019, it has accelerated development and aimed to deploy such missiles in the Indo-Pacific region.

And last year, we deployed the Typhon for the first time during training conducted in the Philippines, and this time, we have deployed it in Japan for the first time.