As early as April 15, 2024, the U.S. Typhon missile system arrived in the Philippines and completed its official deployment. This is the first time that the United States has deployed an intermediate-range missile system in the Philippines, and it is self-evident who it is targeting.
Typhon missile system
The Typhon missile system consists of two systems, one is the Standard-6 anti-aircraft missile system and the other is the Tomahawk cruise missile system.
The Standard-6 air defense missile system has an air defense radius of about 400 kilometers, but its main positioning is low-altitude interception, mainly intercepting drones, subsonic anti-ship missiles and other flying objects within 30 kilometers.
The United States claims that this air defense system can intercept hypersonic missiles, but its actual ability to intercept hypersonic missiles is questionable.
Typhon missile system
The Standard-6 missile uses the Block IV missile, also known as the Tomahawk 4 cruise missile.
The maximum speed of this missile is only Mach 3.5, and it is really difficult for it to intercept hypersonic missiles with a flight speed of more than Mach 5 and a terminal penetration speed of more than Mach 10.
As for the Tomahawk missile system in the Typhon missile system, it is actually a land-based version of the MK41 vertical launch system used on US warships.
This system can be equipped with many types of missiles, but the most important thing is the Block V missile, which has a range of about 2,000 kilometers, that is, the Tomahawk 5 cruise missile.
With the strike range of this missile, when it is deployed in the northern part of the Philippines, it can bring the large cities along the southeast coast of the mainland into the strike range.
Strike range of the Typhon missile system
Generally speaking, the Typhon missile system is a system in which the United States uses two mature technologies to make up for the gap in the US medium-range missile system when its missile technology lags behind China by a large margin, and it is a product of the United States to solve the problem that it does not have an intermediate-range missile system.
As for the advanced nature, the Typhon missile system is a strong threat to ordinary countries, but for China, the Typhon missile system is just like that.
The biggest problem with this system is the speed of its strike system. The main reason why China loves ballistic missiles and does not use cruise missiles much is that cruise missiles are relatively slow, usually only subsonic.
The same is true for the American Tomahawk missile, although the Block V missile can reach a maximum range of 2,000 kilometers, it is still a subsonic missile, flying only about 900 kilometers per hour.
Block V missiles
The distance from the Philippines to the southeast coast of Chinese mainland is about 2,000 kilometers, and launching a Block V missile from the northern part of the Philippines takes at least 2 hours to reach the mainland mainland.
On the other hand, the flight speed of the mainland's various types of Dongfeng missiles is much faster.
The continental DF-21D medium-range ballistic missile has a range of about 3,000 kilometers, a flight speed of more than Mach 6 in the middle section, and a penetration speed of more than Mach 10 at the end.
At a flight speed of Mach 6, the continental DF-21D missile can fly more than 7000 kilometers per hour.
Dongfeng-21D missile
It only takes about 20 minutes to strike from the southeast coast of China to the Philippines.
Compared with the U.S. Typhon missile system, which needs to fly for more than two hours, China undoubtedly has an advantage in mutual deterrence with U.S. missiles.
It can be said that in terms of mutual deterrence of missiles between China and the United States, China has truly achieved "if you shoot first, I can kill you".
Even if the United States strikes first, China's missiles will hit the Philippines first, destroying the Typhon missile system deployed by the United States.
Therefore, the US military has only one opportunity to operate the Typhon missile system deployed in the Philippines for launch, and it does not have much deterrence capability in actual combat.
The Typhon missile system arrives in the Philippines
The purpose of the deployment of the Typhon missile system by the United States
The U.S. deployment of Typhon missiles in the Philippines can be said to be more symbolic than practical.
The United States deploys the Typhon missile system here in the hope that it can express itself in the "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty" on the one hand, and on the other hand, it hopes to put some pressure on China.
In terms of the former, although the United States has repeatedly and forcefully stated that it will invoke the "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty", the Philippine side does not really believe in the US assurances because of the "previous record" of the Sino-US confrontation in the South China Sea in 2016.
U.S.-Philippines diplomacy
Then if the United States wants to make the Philippines believe in itself, it naturally needs to show some indications, so there is the deployment of the Typhon missile system in the Philippines this time.
The Typhon missile system was not very effective
But as a result, the Typhon missile system deployed this time did not work very well.
On the one hand, the strike speed of the Typhon missile system is too slow, and the subsonic missile can fly for 2 hours to reach the Chinese mainland. By the time the missiles fell on the Chinese mainland, the Philippines would have been plowed by China's Dongfeng missiles long ago.
On the other hand, the number of Typhon missile systems deployed by the United States is too small.
In order for this thing to be a deterrent, there needs to be a sufficient number of missiles, and even if it is attacked with a powerful nuclear weapon, a nuclear missile will not work.
Missile launches
As of April 2024, there are only four Typhon missile systems in the United States.
Although the United States has not revealed how many sets it has deployed in the Philippines, it is estimated that there is only one set of Typhon missile systems in the United States.
The strike system in 1 Typhon missile system consists of 4 launchers, and 1 launcher can carry 4 Tomahawk missiles.
In other words, a complete set of Typhon missile systems has only 16 Tomahawk cruise missiles that can be used to strike, and this firepower is really not enough.
Typhon missile system structure
Of course, the air defense system in the Typhon missile system can theoretically be used to hit land targets and even anti-ships, but the maximum range of the Standard-6 missile is only 400 kilometers, and it cannot hit China from the Philippines.
So the Typhon missile system is of little use in the war, and its greatest role is to convince the Philippines that it is protected.
As for the United States using the Typhon missile system to put pressure on China, to a certain extent, it can be regarded as an eye drop on China.
Typhon missile system
The Typhon missile system is currently the only "medium-range missile" system in the United States, and it deployed this thing in the Philippines to remind China that it has the ability to strike on the Chinese mainland.
Ideally, for the United States, it would be
In this way, the United States will muddy the waters of the South China Sea, and it will have the opportunity to fish in troubled waters.
Therefore, the United States deployed the Typhon missile system in the Philippines, in essence, hiding behind the Philippines as before, and then instigating the Philippines to engage in military confrontation with China.
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Resources:
[1] China Youth Network, "Standard-6 Missile "Part-time" Anti-ship
[2] Jinan Times, "The U.S. Military Deploys Intermediate-Range Missile System in the Philippines for the First Time"
[3] Take a look at the news knews·"The latest land-based medium-range missile combat force of the United States is taking shape, and the future will build a "dike" in the Indo-Pacific?"