The first deployment of the US Typhon missile system in Japan is designed to “complicate” China’s military planning and may prompt it to improve its counterstrike systems, according to defence analysts.
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On Monday, the US military showcased the weapons system at a marine base in Iwakuni in the southwest of Honshu ahead of the annual two-week Resolute Dragon field training exercise.
The joint drills involve around 20,000 Japanese and US troops along with other warships and missile batteries.
Colonel Wade Germann, commander of the task force that operates the Typhon, said the missile system would be removed from Japan after the exercise, but declined to say where it would be stationed next or whether it would return to the country.
The system – also known as the Midrange Capabilities System – was deployed in the Philippines in April last year during a similar joint exercise.
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That was the first time such a weapons system had been deployed in the Asia-Pacific region since the 1987 US-Soviet Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty prohibited the development and possession of nuclear and conventional land-based missiles with a range between 500km (310 miles) and 5,500km.