【Military Subplane】Author: Lele
On the 16th, the "Observer Network" quoted the U.S. Army, saying that the United States "deployed the 'Intermediate-Range Strike Missile' (MRC) in the Philippines for the first time in history", and the system will also have the ability to upgrade the ability to carry hypersonic missiles in the future, causing an uproar in public opinion. In the Philippines, repeated provocations in the South China Sea, and the ready-made example of Iran confronting the world's top air defense/anti-missile system with dozens of ballistic missiles, and as a result, seven hypersonic missiles hit the target, this kind of action is extremely worrying, and even the talk of a "second Cuban missile crisis" has popped up. But in fact, this is not the case at all.
▲ The MRC missile launcher unloaded in the Philippines
One thing that most of the reports have mixed up is that the U.S. Army is not permanently deploying MRCs in the Philippines, but is traveling to the Philippines to participate in an exercise ("take part in an exercise in the Philippines"). Last year, the US Air Force dispatched F-22A to the Philippines to participate in the exercise, so did it stay in the Philippines and not leave? Second, the MRC did arrive in the Philippines on 7 July, but there was only one C-17A auxiliary transport, and in fact only one missile launcher was transported. According to the normal establishment, the most basic MRC combat company should have four missile launchers, one command vehicle, and a number of auxiliary units. The most important point is that the current MRC is still far from being equipped with hypersonic weapons, and the deterrent is far from enough.
▲ There is no point in an MRC without a command vehicle
The so-called MRC, which is one of the products of the United States' withdrawal from the INF Treaty to restore the strike capability of intermediate-range ballistic missiles, is actually a change from a ship-borne vertical launch equipment to a ground version, which is towed by a large trailer and composed of a command vehicle. Compared with the common off-road chassis mobile vehicles in China and Russia, the MRC has higher road requirements and poor maneuverability, but it is superior in simple technology and high overlap with the navy. Now the MRC is armed with a total of two missiles, namely the Tomahawk cruise missile and the SM-6. The former is a very ordinary subsonic non-stealth long-range weapon, and according to the experience of the Russian-Ukrainian war, it is not very difficult for the Hongqi-9 to intercept the "Tomahawk" at this stage. After all, with Ukraine's limited air defense level, it has maintained quite good interception results against the Russian Kh-101/555. In the impression of the outside world, the SM-6 is a relatively advanced long-range air defense / anti-missile equipment, and after the MRC appeared in the Philippines this time, there is also information that the US military will use this to have surveillance / anti-missile capabilities in the South China Sea, which is of course impossible.
▲MRC is essentially a transitional product
The SM-6 is equipped with a two-stage solid rocket engine, which was indeed only used as an anti-aircraft / anti-missile equipment in the early years, with a maximum range of 370 kilometers. Later, the U.S. military thought that its single purpose was too wasteful, so it developed anti-ship and ground attack applications, and in a test in 2016, it successfully sent a decommissioned "Perry" frigate to the bottom of the sea. Therefore, the SM-6 carried by the MRC is actually a short-range ballistic missile, and the range has been correspondingly extended to 540 kilometers, which is comparable to the Russian-made "Iskander-M" in terms of basic performance. It is also funny to say that when the United States and Russia did not withdraw from the "INF Treaty" a few years ago, although they did not develop a 500-kilometer ballistic missile, the former had SM-6 that could be upgraded at any time, while the latter simply came up with the 490-kilometer "Iskander-M". When the external conditions change, the two get the finished product out at the speed of light.
▲The Russian army "Iskander-M" is much larger than the SM-6
Since the SM-6 carried by the MRC is intended for ground/sea attack purposes, it is impossible to use the proximity fuse and active radar seeker installed on the anti-aircraft/anti-missile SM-6, and it is naturally impossible to carry out anti-aircraft/anti-missile missions. Even if the supporting parts are specially prepared to be replaced, the lack of air defense radar is a bigger problem, so it is unrealistic to think that the MRC carrying the SM-6 into the Philippines will strengthen the US military's air defense/anti-missile network in the same way that THAAD entered South Korea a few years ago. In addition, according to the plan, the MRC will be equipped with hypersonic weapons led by the US Army in the future, and even corresponding formations have been formed. However, the pace of development of hypersonic weapons by the US military is very slow, and so far it has not shown the possibility of installing them in a short period of time. Forced by the need for equipment, the US Army has lowered the technical requirements of the project and used the relatively simple but relatively sure double-cone technology, but now it has not even mixed up the numbers, and it is difficult to get live ammunition within five years of empty formation.
▲Several hypersonic weapons of the US military are developing slowly
The US Army's high-profile deployment of MRC in the Philippines this time has two real intentions: First, to keep up with the pace of the US Navy and Marine Corps and complete the delivery of MRC overseas. Second, this C-17A was refueled in the air and flew over 8,000 miles (about 12,800 kilometers) to the Philippines, which means that it will be able to deploy quickly as soon as it is needed. The U.S. website "The Warzone" also mentioned that the U.S. Army's move is "a step to deploy the MRC in China's backyard for a long time...... plans to permanently base these systems in China's backyard）”。 What needs to be done domestically is to intercept its vision before it becomes a reality.