AUSA 2026: USARPAC learning ‘Typhon' missile system lessons over 30-month deployment

A Typhon live-fire exercise is shown here in Australia in 2025. (US Army/Sgt Perla Alfaro)

US Army Pacific (USARPAC) officials have used a deployment lasting more than 30 months of the Typhon Mid-Range Capability (MRC) to learn lessons about employing and sustaining the new missile system, according to Major General Bernard J Harrington, commanding general of 7th Infantry Division / Multi-Domain Command – Pacific.

“In the Philippines today, you've got Typhon, which is our Mid-Range Capability, able to employ Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles [TLAMs] as well as the Standard Missile-6 [SM-6],” Maj Gen Harrington said during a 12 October briefing at the Association of the United States Army conference in Washington, DC.

“That system was brought over to the Philippines at the request of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the government of the Philippines. Based off of our shared interest, that system has maintained forward presence for now over 30 consecutive months,” Maj Gen Harrington said.

“And really what that allows us to do is not only trade and share lessons on that equipment, but it also allows us to learn about how to operate in that environment. How do you sustain in that environment. How do you protect those types of systems in that environment. How do you connect sensors and shooters.”

The army on 5 May fired a Tomahawk in the Philippines with the Typhon MRC for the first time during Exercise ‘Balikatan'. Typhon was developed as a land-based, ground-launched system intended to fill gaps between the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) and Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), according to the US Army. A standard Typhon configuration includes four launchers, a battery operations centre (BOC), a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) BOC support vehicle, and a reload capability.