By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-23 06:59:52 | Updated at 2025-01-23 13:31:25
6 hours ago
The US military has moved its Typhon launchers – which can fire multipurpose missiles up to thousands of kilometres – from Laoag airfield in the Philippines to another location on the island of Luzon, a senior Philippine government source said.
The Tomahawk cruise missiles in the launchers can hit targets in both China and Russia from the Philippines; the SM-6 missiles it also carries can strike air or sea targets more than 200km (165 miles) away.
The senior Philippine government source said the redeployment would help determine where and how fast the missile battery could be moved to a new firing position. That mobility is seen as a way to make them more survivable during a conflict.
Satellite images showed the batteries and their associated gear being loaded onto C-17 transport aircraft at Laoag International Airport in recent weeks, Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies said. The white rain canopies that had covered the Typhon equipment were also removed, according to the images, seen by Reuters and not previously reported.
The Typhon system is part of a US drive to amass a variety of anti-ship weapons in Asia.
Indo-Pacific Command (IndoPacom), which oversees US forces in the region, said the Typhons have been “relocated within the Philippines”. Both IndoPacom and the Philippine government declined to give the specific location to which the batteries were moved.
