The Philippines is aiming to acquire the US-made Typhon missile launcher as analysts say such an advanced addition to the country’s arsenal could be a game changer in boosting its deterrence capacity.
General Romeo Brawner Jnr, the country’s military chief, said on Thursday that the Philippines wanted to procure the Mid-Range Capability (MRC), or Typhon, missile system as part of Manila’s strategy to focus more on external defence.
“Part of that advancement is trying to get in the latest weapons systems that are out there, enough for us to develop the intended effect. So one of the modern weapons are, of course, the missile systems,” Brawner said at a press conference following a meeting of senior Philippine defence officials.
The Typhon is a land-based, ground-launched system capable of firing the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile with ranges of more than 240km (150 miles) and 2,500km (1,550 miles), respectively, distances that put the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait within its radius.
The US Army deployed a Typhon launcher in Northern Luzon in April as part of a joint training exercise. The system is reportedly still stationed in the region to allow Philippine troops to familiarise themselves with it.
Sherwin Ona, a political-science professor at De La Salle University in Manila, told This Week in Asia Friday the system could be part of Washington’s US$500 million security assistance package for the Philippines announced in July.
“With our Brahmos missile batteries, these systems can be part of our territorial defence network. Along with the planned acquisition of multi-role fighter jets and submarines, the Typhon can be a game changer and a significant boost to the country’s deterrence posture,” said Ona, a former navy officer.
The Philippines is seeking to enhance its missile defence capabilities as it continues to square off against China in the disputed South China Sea. In April, it acquired its first batch of Brahmos missiles from India this year under a US$375 million deal signed by the two countries in 2022.
China has protested the deployment of the Typhon in the Philippines, accusing Manila and Washington of aggravating regional tensions.
Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun described the system as “a real threat to regional security” during his meeting with US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in May.
Chris Gardiner, CEO of the Institute for Regional Security in Canberra, said Manila’s proposed acquisition of the Typhon might be complicated by strict US controls on advanced military technologies. Even for a weapon acquisition by an ally, Washington would be wary of any perception by a rival state that the US could be directly involved in a regional conflict as a supplier, Gardiner added.
“The concerns are obvious in how the US limits the use of its technologies in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, notwithstanding the clear self-defence justification that Ukraine has,” Gardiner told This Week in Asia.
Gardiner said such an acquisition would also entail a risk of accelerating the arms race in the Indo-Pacific, already fuelled by China’s military spending and deployment of advanced weapon systems.
Joshua Espeña, a resident fellow and vice-president of the International Development and Security Cooperation, said another potential hurdle to Manila acquiring the Typhon was uncertainty over its future foreign policy amid the rivalry between the country’s two most powerful political clans.
The deepening rift between President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and Vice-president Sara Duterte is a cause for concern as the Duterte clan has made no secret of its pro-Beijing stance previously, according to Espeña.
He said: “If Sara wins [the presidency] in 2028, then all efforts made, including tech-sharing such as the MRC, might not just unravel but also risk sending intellectual property secrets to China, whose military organisation is keen on exploiting possible weaknesses in Nato-compliant combat systems and re-engineer them for itself.
“However, if Sara loses to a non-China appeaser, this MRC purchase might have a good strategic effect on the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ missile capabilities.”
After Marcos Jnr won the presidency in 2022, he transformed the country’s security policy by forging closer ties with Washington, giving the US access to four more military sites in the Philippines in line with the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement. Under the pact, the US military could rotate its troops regularly and place defence equipment in the Philippines as part of joint military exercises.
At the same time, the president scrapped the pro-China initiatives of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.
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Despite China’s opposition to the Typhon’s deployment in the Philippines, analysts say Manila should acquire the system to underscore its heightened deterrence.
“It should be placed in the Northern Luzon Command and Western Command areas in a scenario of Chinese ships and drones in an open conflict,” Espeña said.
Defence analyst Vincent Kyle Parada, a researcher at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said Philippine troops have acquired enough know-how to use advanced missile systems like the Typhon through exercises with their US counterparts.
“Systems like the HIMARS and the MRC itself, for example, have seen deployments to the Philippines as part of drills. Constant exposure means the AFP has at least limited working knowledge of how they operate,” Parada said.
Manila’s interest in acquiring the Typhon comes as tensions between the Philippines and China continue to simmer in the South China Sea.
In the latest incident, Chinese and Philippine vessels collided near the Sabina Shoal on Monday. Other recent clashes included the Chinese coastguard’s disruption of Manila’s resupply missions to the Second Thomas Shoal and the firing of flares by a Chinese fighter jet near a Philippine patrol plane.
