A Philippine platoon will be trained on how to use a controversial US missile system, known as the Typhon, that’s been deployed in the Philippines since April 2024, The Defense Post reported on Tuesday.
The deployment of the Typhon to the Philippines has ratcheted up tensions with China, which has said the presence of the US missile system in Southeast Asia is fueling “geopolitical confrontation” and an “arms race.”
Philippine Army spokesman Col. Louie Dema-ala said a Philippine platoon will receive “orientation and familiarization” training on the Typhon system. “As long as MRC (mid-range missile capability) is here, we maximize its utilization to train our personnel in new technology,” he said.
The Philippine military announced last month that it planned to acquire its own Typhon, and the US recently re-deployed the missile system to a different location inside the Philippines.
The Typhon missile launcher is a ground-based system concealed in a 40-foot shipping container that can fire nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of more than 1,000 miles, and SM-6 missiles, which can hit targets up to 290 miles away.
The US began developing the Typhon after it withdrew from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. The INF was a Cold War-era treaty between the US and Russia that prohibited the development of ground-based missiles with a range between 310 and 3,400 miles.
