MANILA, Philippines — The US military is recent deployment of a medium-range missile The delivery to the northern Philippines was “incredibly important” and allowed U.S. and Philippine forces to train jointly for the potential use of such heavy weaponry in the conditions of the Asian archipelago, a U.S. general said Monday.
The Biden administration has moved to strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in any potential confrontation over Taiwan and other Asian flashpoints. The Philippines has also been working on shoring to step up its territorial defense after disputes with China began to escalate last year in the increasingly volatile South China Sea.
China has strongly opposed the increased deployment of U.S. combat troops in Asia. But it has been special alarmed by the deployment of the US military in April of the Typhon missile system, a land-based weapon capable of firing the Standard Missile-6 and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, to northern Philippines as part of joint combat exercises in April with Philippine forces.
“What the collective is doing gives us the opportunity to understand how we can deploy that capability – the environmental challenges here are very unique to any other place in the region,” said U.S. Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, commanding general of the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division, when asked how the missile system has helped participants in joint combat training in the Philippines.
“Last year we also deployed long-range fire capabilities with HIMARS and we were able to move those around the archipelago with fixed-wing aircraft,” Evans told The Associated Press in an interview in Manila, referring to the High mobility artillery rocket systemsthe truck-mounted launchers, which fire GPS-guided missiles that can hit distant targets.
“These are just incredibly important operations because you’re going to be working in the environment, but the most important thing is that you’re working with our partners here in the Philippines to understand how these are going to be integrated into their operations,” Evans said, without elaborating to enter.
The Typhon missile system was due to be flown out of the Philippines last month, but three Philippine security officials recently told the AP that the treaty’s longtime allies had agreed to keep the missile system in the northern Philippines indefinitely to increase deterrence, despite alarming Chinese statements.
The Philippine officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the sensitive U.S. missile deployment.
Evans flew to Manila to begin talks with Philippine military colleagues on holding annual military exercises by allied forces in the Southeast Asian country, especially the Salaknib exerciseswhich aim to increase the combat readiness of thousands of American and Philippine troops in increasingly realistic environments.
“Conceptually, the idea is for it to be a larger, more complex exercise,” Evans said, adding that joint training maneuvers could take place from the jungles of the northern Philippines to former US military bases in the region.
“We also plan to bring new equipment to train with our teammates from the Philippine Army, which we did not have last year,” he said, without giving details.
“Our job, together with our Philippine Army teammates, is to get 1% better every day in terms of readiness,” he said. “The relationships that have been built, the readiness that has been developed, should remove any doubt about the importance of our alliances and the work we are doing here with the Philippine military.”
Evans and other U.S. military officials attended a ceremony Sunday marking the anniversary of a historic moment in U.S.-Philippine relations, when U.S. Gen. Douglas Macarthur fulfilled his promise to return to the military in October 1944 Philippines by wading ashore to the coast of the central province of Leyte. help liberate the country from the Japanese occupying forces.
On Monday, Evans and his men laid a wreath in a sober ceremony at the American Cemetery in metropolitan Manila, the largest American cemetery and World War II memorial in the world.
The ceremony at Leyte Gulf reflected the long history that had linked the U.S. and Philippine armed forces in war and peace, he said.
“That trust has been built over eight decades,” Evans said.
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Associated Press reporter Aaron Favila contributed to this report.