The intermediate-range missile system deployed in 2024 to the Philippines by United States forces is part of a new mission: Philippine Soldiers will train with the Typhon missile system before the longtime allies’ upcoming exercises.
The training, which will focus on the Typhon’s advanced capabilities, particularly its cruise missile capacities, will not involve live-fire drills. About 20 Soldiers from the Philippine Army’s artillery regiment will train with the U.S. Army Pacific’s 1st Multi-Domain Task Force in mid-February 2025, Philippine Army spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala said. The training will focus on payload delivery aspects of the system, categorized as Mid-Range Capability (MRC).
“As long as the MRC is here, we maximize its utilization to train our personnel with these new technologies,” Dema-ala told reporters in Manila.
The U.S. deployed the Typhon system, a mobile land-based launcher that can fire Standard Missile-6 and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, to the Philippines in April 2024 as part of the annual Salaknib exercise. The launch system remained in the Philippines after the drills, and eventually was relocated closer to where the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are embroiled in a long-running territorial dispute over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
The PRC claims almost all of the resource-rich sea, portions of which also are claimed by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The PRC has ignored a 2016 international tribunal ruling that invalidated its sovereignty contentions and the China Coast Guard uses illegal, coercive, aggressive and dangerous tactics to push its claims in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. The bullying includes blocking and ramming Philippine Coast Guard vessels and aiming lasers and shooting high-power water cannons at Philippine ships and fishing boats. Recently, the China Coast Guard used a long-range acoustical device to transmit high-decibel sound waves toward Philippine Coast Guard vessels, causing pain and potential hearing loss to personnel, Manila said.
Philippine officials reiterated the nation’s right to deploy assets within its territory.
“Let’s make a deal with China: Stop claiming our territory, stop harassing our fishermen and let them have a living, stop ramming our boats, stop water cannoning our people, stop firing lasers at us, and stop your aggressive and coercive behavior, and we’ll return the Typhon missiles,” to the U.S., Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in late January 2025.
In December 2024, Manila announced plans to acquire an MRC missile system because “we see its feasibility and adaptability,” according to Lt. Gen. Roy Galido, the Philippine Army’s commanding general.
The Typhon will be used in February 2025 as part of the combined arms training exercise Katihan, which evaluates the Philippines Army’s ability to move, maneuver and sustain large-scale forces during combat. The drill is a rehearsal for the bilateral Salaknib, which strengthens interoperability between the Philippine and U.S. armies.
Salaknib, in turn, complements the larger Balikatan exercise, which in 2025 will feature a “full and comprehensive rehearsal of the concept plan” for the defense of the Philippines, according to Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
