The US wants to deploy a previously banned missile system to Japan for military drills, Nikkei Asia reported Thursday.
The Typhon missile launcher is a ground-based system that can fire nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of more than 1,000 miles. Ground-based missiles with a range between 310 and 3,400 miles were banned by the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which the US withdrew from in 2019. The Typhon also fires SM-6 missiles, which can hit targets up to 290 miles away.
The US deployed a Typhon system to the Philippines for military drills, a move that China viewed as a major provocation. The missile system was sent to the Philippines for several months. It was first deployed for the drills that started in April, and Manila said it would be pulled out in September, meaning it could still be there.
The Philippines said China expressed “very dramatic” alarm over the deployment of the Typhon system. Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said the deployment “put the entire region under the fire of the United States (and) brought huge risks of war into the region.”
US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said on Wednesday that she told Japanese officials the US wanted to deploy the Typhon to Japan next. “We’ve made our interest in this clear with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces,” she said at a Defense News conference in Virginia.
Hellbound and Down 