US says missile deployment in PH 'incredibly important'

(UPDATE) THE US Army's recent deployment of a midrange missile system to the northern Philippines was "incredibly important" and allowed American and Filipino forces to jointly train for the potential usage of such heavy weaponry in Asian archipelago conditions, a US general said Monday. The Biden administration has moved to strengthen an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in any possible confrontation over Taiwan and other Asian flash points. The Philippines has also worked on shoring up its territorial defenses after its disputes with China started to escalate last year in the increasingly volatile South China Sea. China has vehemently opposed the increased deployment of American combat forces to Asia. But it has been particularly alarmed by the US Army's deployment in April of the Typhon missile system, a land-based weapon that can fire the Standard Missile-6 and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile to the northern Philippines as part of joint combat exercises in April with Philippine troops. "What it does collectively, it provides us the opportunity to understand how to employ that capability — the environmental challenges here are very unique to any other place in the region," US Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, commanding general of the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division, said when asked how the missile system has helped participants in joint combat training in the Philippines. "Last year, we also deployed long-range fires capabilities with Himars and we were able to move those around with fixed-wing aircraft around the archipelago environment," Evans told The Associated Press (AP) in an interview in Manila, referring to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, the truck-mounted launchers, which fire GPS-guided missiles capable of hitting distant targets. "Those are just incredibly important operations because you get to work in the environment, but most importantly, you're working alongside our partners here in the Philippines to understand how those will be integrated into their operations," Evans said without elaborating. The Typhon missile system was supposed to be flown out of the Philippines last month, but three Philippine security officials told the AP recently that the longtime treaty allies had agreed to keep the missile system in the northern Philippines indefinitely to boost deterrence despite China's expressions of alarm. The Philippine officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive US missile deployment publicly. Evans flew to Manila to start talks with Philippine army counterparts on holding annual military exercises by the allied forces in the Southeast Asian country next year, particularly the Salaknib drills, which aim to boost the combat-readiness of thousands of American and Filipino troops in increasingly realistic settings. "Conceptually, it is scheduled to be a larger, more complex exercise," Evans said, adding that there could be joint training maneuvers from the jungles in the northern Philippines to former US military bases in the region.