/Pogled.info/ For the first time since the Cold War, the Americans deployed medium-range land-based missiles abroad. They were transferred late last week to the Philippines. It is not known exactly how much. Official – for participation in the exercises. In fact, to test the working mechanisms of multi-domain tactical groups (MOTG – MDTF – Multi-Domain Task Force), recently created to contain China. About Washington’s new strategy in the region – in the material.
Naval missiles for the army
The Americans have not had medium-range land-based missiles since the late 1980s, according to the DRSMO. After the United States withdrew from it in 2019, the Pentagon ordered the industry to quickly create such weapons for the ground forces and prepare them for deployment by the fourth quarter of 2023. For this contract, Lockheed Martin received almost $ 340 million . The goal of the project is to develop a prospective surface-to-surface missile system with enhanced combat capabilities, capable of hitting targets at a distance of 500 to 5,000 kilometers.
Contractors did not reinvent the wheel and took existing solutions from the fleet. The result is the Typhoon, which is a 40-foot standard shipping container on a wheeled chassis with four Mk41 vertical launch pods. They are widely used in the navy and can launch missiles for various purposes. The Tomahawk and CM-6 were chosen for the ground forces.
Various modifications of the Tomahawk cruise missiles have been used by the US Armed Forces since 1983. The range, depending on the variant, is from 1,600 to 2,500 kilometers. The US Navy has used these missiles in all armed conflicts with them since Desert Storm. The weapon is accurate, unpretentious and cheap. However, the “Tomahawks” have never been launched against a country with a developed air defense system. Subsonic speed and rather large size make them not the most difficult target for a modern air defense system.
The RIM-174 SM-6 missile was put into service in 2013. It belongs to the “surface-to-air” class, designed for air defense and anti-missile defense of warships. The range of firing at air targets is 230 kilometers. However, as part of the Typhoon, it operates in a quasi-ballistic mode against surface and ground targets. Range – 460 kilometers. On the last section of the trajectory – guidance with active radar.
The “Typhoon” battery set includes a unified command post with a support machine, four launchers and transport and charging systems. They are built on three-axle semi-trailers and are moved by tractors from the HEMTT family. To fire, you need to place the battery in a prepared place.
Multi-area groups
The operator of the new missile systems in the Asia-Pacific region will be the 1st Multi-Area Tactical Group, which deployed Typhoon to the Philippines. The main target is Chinese ships and military infrastructure. The potential of the PLA here is only slightly weaker than the American one. China already has more ships than the US. It has long-range anti-ship missiles, including hypersonic, a developed network of airfields and numerous aircraft.
Washington fears that the PLA will create a so-called Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) over the Taiwan Strait – a territory reliably covered by air defense systems and coastal missile systems, where Western aircraft and ships will suffer unreasonably high costs in the event of a conflict. According to the Pentagon, the ground forces, and in particular the MOTG, will have to break through this fortress.
The composition and strength of such units varies depending on the combat task and conditions. The main strike force is high-precision missiles from the HIMARS MLRS to advanced hypersonic missiles. Special attention is paid to intelligence, radio-electronic warfare and communications. There are also cyber security specialists. In the event of war, the MOTG will use its full potential to reduce the effectiveness of the “no-access zones”. It will also destroy key objects of the enemy’s military infrastructure.
According to Colonel Jason Charland, a specialist at the Pentagon’s staff of the army, the use of MOTG against China only makes sense if the missile weapons are deployed nearby – on the first island chain that includes the Philippines, South Korea and Japan. Now the nearest military base is in Guam, two thousand kilometers away. Charland noted that, for now, Seoul and Tokyo have no desire to deploy American strike systems. But Manila seems to have relented.
It is assumed that the multi-area groups, in addition to the Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles, will receive promising long-range hypersonic weapons). They will be able to develop speeds up to 17 times that of sound and hit targets at a distance of up to three thousand kilometers. Americans from the Philippines will thus reach almost any point in China, all the way to Beijing.
China’s response
However, China has ways to respond to this threat. According to American experts, Beijing has an impressive arsenal of medium-range ballistic missiles “Dongfeng-26” – up to 80 units. They are capable of delivering a nuclear warhead 3,000-5,500 kilometers away. In non-nuclear weapons, they are ready to destroy large surface ships, for which the Western press called them “carrier killers”.
The Chinese have medium-range missiles DF-21A, DF-21C, DF-21D and DF-21E, with a total of about 150 launchers. There are about fifty DF-21A and DF-21E nuclear warhead carriers. Short-range missiles (DF-11, DF-15 and DF-16) – several hundred. It is likely that such significant reserves were the reason for the US withdrawal from the treaty to eliminate these types of weapons.
At the same time, China is steadily modernizing its missile arsenal. In particular, the PLA is now armed with the DF-17 medium-range ballistic missile, designed to launch a DF-ZF hypersonic warhead into nuclear or conventional equipment at altitude. This glider, similar in purpose to the Russian “Avangard”, is capable of accelerating up to 5 times the speed of sound and actively maneuvering along its trajectory, which makes it difficult to be intercepted by anti-missile defense systems.
Translation: V. Sergeev
