In an effort to contain China's development in the South China Sea, the United States deployed the Typhon intermediate-range missile system in the Philippines on April 11, 2024, sparking another tension between China and the United States.
CCTV 4 sets closely follow current affairs to report
To a certain extent, this incident is simply the "Cuban Missile Crisis" of the new era, and it will inevitably trigger a high degree of geopolitical tension.
The United States deploys the Typhon missile system
China was also quick to respond after the United States began deploying the Typhon missile system.
A week after the United States deployed the Typhon missile system in the Philippines, a Chinese Wuzhan-7 appeared around the Spratly Islands on April 18, according to Belgian military media "Armyrecognition".
Wuzhen-7 is close to the Philippines
It is clear that this is the beginning of China's reconnaissance activities against the Philippines.
Through remote sensing satellite systems and reconnaissance by unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, China can locate and deploy the Typhon missile system to support possible follow-up PLA strikes.
As a matter of fact, the Typhon missile system deployed by the United States in the Philippines is quite fragile and completely unable to reverse the confrontation between China and the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.
On the one hand, the location of the Typhon missile system is relatively close to China, on Luzon Island, about 600 kilometers from the coast of Chinese mainland.
Luzon
This distance completely exposes the medium-range missile of the United States to the strike range of mainland missiles, from the relatively primitive Dongfeng-15 ballistic missile to the hypersonic missile Dongfeng-17, whose range can cover Luzon.
Once the war broke out,
On the other hand, the Typhon missile system itself strikes slowly. The Typhon missile system consists of two parts, one is an air defense system with the Standard-6 anti-aircraft missile as the core, and the other is a strike system with the Tomahawk 5 (Block V) as the core.
The Tomahawk 5 (Block V) missile has a range of about 2,000 kilometers, but because it is a cruise missile, it can only fly at subsonic speeds, and the maximum flight speed will not exceed 900 kilometers.
战斧5（Block V）导弹
If war breaks out between China and the United States and the United States uses the Typhon missile system to strike Chinese mainland, the system's missiles will need to fly for at least 40 minutes to reach the Chinese mainland.
China's hypersonic missile, on the other hand, can hit Luzon in less than 10 minutes, and the two sides are not at all of an order of magnitude in terms of strike speed.
Of course, the most critical thing is that the number of Typhon missile systems is too small. Because of the extremely high price of the US military-industrial complex, the United States itself actually does not very much afford to use this missile system.
As of April 2024, Lockheed Martin has delivered only four Typhon missile systems to the U.S. Army.
Typhon missile system
At present, the United States has deployed only one Typhon missile system in the Philippines. A single Typhon missile system consists of four missile launchers, and one missile launcher can carry up to four missiles.
In other words, the United States has only deployed 16 missiles in the Philippines so far. This firepower is really not enough between opponents of this level in China and the United States.
Therefore, the current US military deployment in the Philippines is still unable to reverse the disadvantage of US military confrontation in the Asia-Pacific region.
The only role of the Typhon missile system is to convince the Philippines that it is under the military protection of the United States, because China knows that the Typhon missile system cannot protect the Philippines.
Typhon missile system missile launcher
How is China responding?
As for how China will deal with the issue of the United States deploying the Typhon missile system in the Philippines in the future, the mainland has two options at present.
The first option is:
It is worth mentioning that on the same day that the United States publicly announced the deployment of the Typhon missile system in the Philippines on April 15, the Chinese side met with Rojo, director of the Political Department of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, and gave quite clear assurances that it would "support the construction of the Cuban army."
Director of the Political Department of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, Rojo
In China's statement,
If the mainland decides to sell intermediate-range missiles to Cuba, then Cuba will be able to include the United States in its strike range. In this way, China and the United States can form a reciprocal deterrent.
The second choice of the mainland is
At the moment, China is the most likely to make a move on Scarborough Shoal.
Scarborough Shoal
China, in the middle of its relationship with ASEAN, does not want to make its relationship with the Philippines too stiff, so it has always restrained itself on Scarborough Shoal and has not reclaimed or militarized Scarborough Shoal until now.
When the Typhon missile system is deployed on the Philippine mainland, China will be able to reclaim Scarborough Shoal on the grounds of reciprocal countermeasures, and then build a port and airfield on it, and deploy military forces on Scarborough Shoal.
Scarborough Shoal is about 300 kilometers away from the Philippines, and after China deploys military forces here, it will have the ability to strike at the Philippines at any time and gain greater initiative in the confrontation between China and the Philippines.
H-6 inspects Scarborough Shoal
This incident is another bluff by the United States against the Philippines
Overall, the U.S. deployment of the Typhon missile system in the Philippines is another attempt to instigate confrontation between the Philippines and China.
The United States does not have the courage to attack China with missiles, but it has the courage to push the Philippines into the battlefield under the pretext of attacking China.
In fact, the 2016 South China Sea arbitration is logically the same as the current deployment of the Typhon missile system by the United States in the Philippines.
This matter is essentially the hope that the United States will think that the United States will really give it a head, and then run to provoke China.
U.S. and Philippine diplomacy
At the time of the "South China Sea Arbitration", the United States had also been mentioning the "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty", hinting that the Philippines itself would stand up for the Philippines. As a result, in the 2016 Sino-US confrontation in the South China Sea, the United States simply ran away, leaving the Philippines in place.
Now that the United States is engaging in this kind of tactic again, on the one hand, it can be said that the Philippines does not have a long memory, and on the other hand, it can also be said that the United States has nothing to play its cards.
With China's current war potential, the United States does not dare to go to war with China directly, and is even a little afraid of a small-scale military conflict with China, so it can only push its "allies" in front of China.
U.S.-Philippine military cooperation
Therefore, in this matter, the Philippines is completely a pawn that has been pushed to the front of the stage by the United States and can be abandoned at any time.
Resources:
[1] Shangguan News, "Dangerous Trends: The U.S. Army Deploys Intermediate-Range Missiles in the Philippines for the First Time"
[2] Jiemian News, "He Weidong Meets with Director of the Political Department of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba"