‘Typhon missile system can defend Philippines maritime interests’

MANILA, Philippines — The US Typhon mid-range missile system provides the capability to help defend the Philippines’ maritime interests, according to Washington’s top diplomat in the country.

Ambassador MaryKay Carlson stated that the US is working with Philippine authorities in accordance with the Philippines’ Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept, which is “a very important way of assessing or visualizing the archipelagic nation.”

“It’s about defending your interests in your territorial seas, certainly, but also in your exclusive economic zone (EEZ),” Carlson said during her visit to The STAR office in Parañaque last Thursday.

“We’re working together hand in hand, day in, day out on what we can do together to defend our mutual interests in this region,” she added.

The US Army deployed the mid-range missile system in the northern Philippines last year for the Balikatan, the annual joint military exercises with its longtime ally.

It has been used by Philippine armed forces to train for their operations.

“We’ll be using it for training, and it’s a system that we think is useful for our troops to have the capability to use. It’s so important to understand that there are exercises and we have 500-plus different types of exercises or engagements, military to military,” Carlson said.

The Philippines plans to acquire the US Typhon, also known as the strategic mid-range fires system, that can launch Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of hitting targets up to 2,000 kilometers away.

It is crucial in coastal defense and protecting the country’s sovereignty against foreign threats.

“So it’s really important that we have the ability to train together on these complex systems, the fact we’ve heard a number of calls on the part of the Philippine government to have the system remain here to purchase one. That’s something that is certainly under discussion. The Philippines is our oldest treaty ally in this region,” Carlson emphasized.

China has urged the Philippines to promptly pull out the Typhon missile system, telling Manila that the “world needs peace and not a mid-range missile system.”

The Philippines maintained that China must respect the country’s decisions on its defense and security as the government plans to acquire a missile system from the US.

National Security Adviser Eduardo Año branded as unfounded and pure speculation China’s criticism that the Philippines’ efforts to enhance its defense and deterrence capabilities, specifically the deployment of the Typhon missile system, are part of a broader arms race or pose a threat to the region or any country.

Sustained efforts

Meanwhile, the Philippine Coast Guard will sustain its efforts to drive Chinese forces out of the West Philippine Sea “no matter how long it takes,” according to PCG spokesman on WPS concerns Commodore Jay Tarriela.

The PCG’s 83-meter offshore patrol vessel BRP Gabriela Silang saw the changing of two patrol ships of the China Coast Guard (CCG) with bow numbers 5901 – said to be the world’s largest coast guard ship at 165 meters and 12,000 tons – and 3304 that is 111 meters long.

“At approximately 3 p.m., CCG-5901 moved further away from the PCG vessel, while another vessel, CCG-3304, approached the coast of Zambales,” Tarriela said in his latest nightly advisory last Sunday.

He noted that CCG 5901 was detected “at an approximate distance of 95 nautical miles from the coast of Zambales” while CCG 3304 was around “65 nautical miles” from the shores of the province.

Personnel onboard Gabriela Silang sent radio challenges to both CCG vessels, asserting they were violating Republic Act 12064, or the Philippine Maritime Zones Act, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, of which China is a “signatory party,” and the 2016 Arbitral Award.

The ruling upheld the Philippines’ sovereign rights over its 200-nautical-mile EEZ and rejected China’s expansive claim over the entire South China Sea.

In a post on his X account yesterday, Tarriela asserted that if the PCG would not challenge China’s trespassing in the WPS, China “will succeed in establishing a precedent for its maritime forces’ illegal patrols in the future.”

“Therefore, no matter how long it takes, the PCG vessels will always be present to prevent China from changing the status quo,” he wrote. — Ghio Ong, Bella Cariaso