US Army long-range fires make a splash on the frontline with China

From Balabac in the southern Philippines to Hokkaido in northern Japan, U.S. Army soldiers have stepped up their training with new long-range weapons along the first island chain, working with allies in exercises that have grown larger and more complex over the past half-decade.

Freed from Cold War-era constraints , the U.S. Army has been upgrading its existing missiles and rocket artillery and developing new, longer-range systems . Those investments are largely in response to the growing size and sophistication of China’s missile arsenal, which the U.S. military worries could deny its forces access to the Western Pacific during a conflict. The intensification of training with the Philippines and Japan reflects a shared concern about China’s military capabilities.

The emphasis on long-range fires in the first island chain is visible in the extended deployments and first-of-their-kind drills involving those weapons, especially the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System . HIMARS can conduct land-attack and maritime-strike missions using guided rockets with ranges of a few dozen miles or ballistic missiles with ranges of a few hundred miles.

U.S. Army HIMARS operated in Japan for the first time in 2021 during an exercise in Hokkaido and were first deployed to Japan’s Southwest Islands, which separate the East China Sea from the wider Pacific, in 2022 for an exercise on an island northeast of Okinawa. Since then, HIMARS has been a common feature of U.S. exercises with Japan, most recently this year’s Keen Sword, for which Army HIMARS were sent to a Japanese island that is only 150 miles east of Taiwan.

The Army’s HIMARS has a longer history in the Philippines, but in recent years, U.S. and Filipino troops have employed it in new roles, such as anti-ship strikes, and in new parts of the country. Exercises in 2024 and 2025 saw HIMARS deployed to Palawan, facing the South China Sea, and to the northern coast of Luzon, facing Taiwan.

This year’s edition of Balikatan, the two countries’ largest annual exercise, showed their ability to move HIMARS around the country by land, sea and air: In April, U.S. soldiers and airmen transported a HIMARS to Itbayat, the Philippines’ northernmost municipality and only 100 miles from Taiwan, for a dry-fire exercise. A few weeks later, an Army watercraft transported a HIMARS launcher to Balabac Island, south of Palawan, for the first time for a live-fire exercise, which showed its ability “to protect shipping going into the Sulu and Celebes Sea,” the Army said.

The ability to move forces into and across the first island chain demonstrates alliance integration and sends a message to rivals, according to Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of U.S. Army Pacific. “It’s really a joint success story,” Clark said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. this month.

Clark pointed to a recent exercise for which soldiers loaded HIMARS launchers on aircraft at a base in Washington state and flew them to the Philippines, all of which was visible to adversaries. “We then join munitions from Korea that were drawn out of stocks there to the Philippines, where our adversary could see it, and then we conduct a live-fire on the backend of a HIMARS rapid-infiltration operation,” Clark added. “Being able to do that, it, one, takes a lot of skill. Second, it takes a tremendous amount of partnership with, in this case, allies to assist us.”

Demonstrating improving capabilities in increasingly complex exercises has an impact on adversaries’ thinking, Clark said. “To be able to conduct operational maneuver and have tremendous tactical effects that then have a strategic effect on our adversary is exactly what we were looking to gain, because what that does is it gives them pause.”

Over the past two years, the U.S. Army has introduced its Mid-Range Capability, a new ground-based missile system known as Typhon, to its training in the first island chain. Typhon can fire SM-6 missiles at air and maritime targets a few hundred miles away and Tomahawk missiles at land targets up to 1,000 miles away, bringing swathes of China and Russia into range from the Philippines and Japan.

Typhon’s first overseas deployment was in 2024 in the Philippines. It has remained there since then, and in May this year, it was test-fired for the first time, striking a target in central Luzon from nearly 400 miles away. The Army sent a Typhon to Japan for the first time in August 2025 for an exercise the following month, but the weapon lingered until November that year. It returned to Japan this summer, deploying to the southernmost of Japan’s main islands for exercises in June and September and moving to a base on Okinawa for storage in October. U.S. officials told Tokyo the deployment isn’t meant to be permanent, but it has no official end date.

The Typhon was sent to the Philippines at Manila’s request and “has maintained forward presence for now over 30 consecutive months,” Maj. Gen. Bernard Harrington said in a presentation at the AUSA conference. Harrington commands the recently established 7th Infantry Division/Multi-Domain Command-Pacific, which combines the 7th Infantry Division’s ground-maneuver elements with the long-range fires and non-kinetic effects of the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force.

Typhon’s presence in the Philippines has allowed for extended in-theater training, giving soldiers more insight into issues like “How do we sustain in the environment? How do you protect those types of systems in the environment? How do you connect sensor to shooter?” Harrington said in his presentation. “To be able to do that persistently forward and persistently with our ally in the Philippines and our partners is incredibly important for us.”

While the presence of HIMARS and Typhon in new places has been widely publicized, those deployments also create opportunities for U.S. troops to do less visible work to improve communications links and enhance their command-and-control networks , ensuring that friendly forces have a common operating picture of the battlefield and can use their weapons effectively in combat.

China has watched these developments warily. Beijing regularly criticizes U.S. exercises with Japan and the Philippines as provocative and destabilizing, and it has singled out Typhon deployments for vitriol . But experts cited by Chinese state media also say China has an advantage against weapons like HIMARS when they are deployed on islands near Taiwan because the islands’ small size and terrain will hinder mobility and concealment and their remoteness will make it easier to spot and block resupply efforts.

The logistical challenge is real. U.S. war games also emphasize the difficulty of resupplying small islands near Taiwan — but Harrington said it underscores the need for US forces to disperse and adopt lower-cost, lower-signature weapons alongside expensive missiles.

“This maximizes options for the Joint Force while also enhancing the protection and survivability of our soldiers,” Harrington told Defense News at AUSA. “For example, the employment of systems such as long-range one-way-attack drones, unmanned surface vessels, and long-range launched effects may enable our division to achieve a desired effect for the Joint Force while also preserving our larger, more exquisite systems until needed for a specific purpose.”

从菲律宾南部的巴拉巴克到日本北部的北海道，美国陆军士兵在第一岛链上加强了使用新型远程武器的训练，并与盟友一起开展了规模越来越大、越来越复杂的演习。

摆脱了冷战时期的束缚，美国陆军一直在升级现有的导弹和火箭炮，并研发新型的远程系统。这些投资主要是为了应对中国导弹武库日益增长的规模和复杂性，美国军方担心这可能会在冲突中阻碍其部队进入西太平洋地区。加强与菲律宾和日本的联合训练，也反映出美菲日三国对中国军事能力的共同担忧。

第一岛链对远程火力的重视体现在相关武器（尤其是高机动性火箭炮系统）的大规模部署和史无前例的演习中。HIMARS 可使用射程数十英里的制导火箭或射程数百英里的弹道导弹执行对陆攻击和海上打击任务。

美国陆军的HIMARS系统于2021年在日本首次亮相，当时正值北海道的一次演习。2022年，该系统首次部署到日本西南诸岛，这些岛屿将东海与更广阔的太平洋分隔开来，并在冲绳东北部的一个岛屿上进行演习。此后，HIMARS系统成为美日联合演习的常见组成部分，最近一次是今年的“利剑”演习，陆军HIMARS系统被派往距离台湾以东仅150英里的日本岛屿。

美国陆军的HIMARS反潜导弹系统在菲律宾有着悠久的历史，但近年来，美菲联军已将其应用于反舰打击等新任务，并在菲律宾的新地区部署。在2024年和2025年的联合演习中，HIMARS系统分别部署至面向南海的巴拉望岛和面向台湾的吕宋岛北部沿海地区。

今年的“肩并肩”联合军演是美菲两国规模最大的年度联合演习，展现了美菲两国通过陆路、海路和空路在菲律宾境内部署HIMARS导弹防御系统的能力：4月，美军士兵和飞行员将一套HIMARS导弹系统运送至菲律宾最北端的伊特巴亚特市（距台湾仅100英里），进行空射演习。几周后，美国陆军一艘舰艇首次将一套HIMARS导弹发射装置运送至巴拉望岛以南的巴拉巴克岛，进行实弹演习。美国陆军表示，此次演习展现了该系统“保护进入苏禄海和西里伯斯海的船只”的能力。

美国太平洋陆军司令罗纳德·克拉克将军表示，美军能够向第一岛链调动兵力，展现了联盟的一体化程度，并向对手发出了明确的信号。“这的确是一项联合行动的成功案例，”克拉克本月在华盛顿特区举行的美国陆军协会年会上说道。

克拉克指出，最近一次演习中，士兵们在华盛顿州的一个基地将HIMARS火箭炮装上飞机，然后运往菲律宾，整个过程敌方都能看到。“之后，我们把从韩国调来的弹药也运到菲律宾，敌方也能看到，然后在HIMARS快速渗透行动的尾声进行实弹射击，”克拉克补充道。“做到这一点，首先需要高超的技能。其次，需要与盟友进行大量的合作，在这种情况下，需要盟友的协助。”

克拉克说，在日益复杂的演习中展示不断提升的能力会对对手的思维产生影响。“我们想要达到的目的就是进行作战机动，并取得巨大的战术效果，进而对对手产生战略影响，因为这会让他们有所顾忌。”

过去两年，美国陆军在第一岛链的训练中引入了其中程作战能力——一种名为“台风”（Typhon）的新型陆基导弹系统。“台风”系统可以发射SM-6导弹打击数百英里外的空中和海上目标，并发射“战斧”（Tomahawk）导弹打击最远1000英里外的陆地目标，这使得菲律宾和日本的射程覆盖了中国和俄罗斯的大片地区。

“台风”导弹于2024年首次海外部署在菲律宾。此后它一直驻扎在那里，并于今年5月进行了首次试射，从近400英里外击中了吕宋岛中部的目标。美国陆军于2025年8月首次向日本派遣“台风”导弹，用于次月的演习，但该武器一直停留到同年11月。今年夏天，它再次返回日本，于6月和9月部署到日本最南端的主要岛屿进行演习，并于10月转移到冲绳的一个基地进行封存。美国官员告诉东京，此次部署并非永久性的，但目前尚无正式的结束日期。

应马尼拉方面的请求，台风装甲车被派往菲律宾，伯纳德·哈灵顿少将在美军美国协会（AUSA）会议上作报告时表示，“台风”装甲车已连续30多个月保持前沿部署。”哈灵顿少将指挥着新成立的第7步兵师/太平洋多域司令部，该司令部整合了第7步兵师的地面机动力量以及第1多域特遣部队的远程火力和非动能打击能力。

Typhon在菲律宾的部署使得战区内训练得以延长，让士兵们对“如何在特定环境下维持作战？如何保护这类系统？如何将传感器与射手连接起来？”等问题有了更深入的了解。哈灵顿在报告中说道：“能够与我们在菲律宾的盟友和伙伴们持续开展前沿训练，对我们来说至关重要。”

虽然 HIMARS 和 Typhon 在新地点的出现已被广泛宣传，但这些部署也为美军提供了机会，让他们可以开展一些不太引人注目的工作，以改善通信链路并增强其指挥控制网络，从而确保友军对战场有共同的作战图景，并能在战斗中有效地使用他们的武器。

中国一直密切关注着这些事态发展。北京经常批评美国与日本和菲律宾的联合军演具有挑衅性和破坏性，并特别抨击了“台风”导弹系统的部署。但中国官方媒体援引专家的话称，当“高机动性导弹系统”（HIMARS）等武器部署在台湾附近的岛屿上时，中国具有应对优势，因为这些岛屿面积小、地形复杂，不利于其机动性和隐蔽性，而且位置偏远，更容易发现并阻止补给行动。

后勤方面的挑战是真实存在的。美国的军事演习也强调了向台湾附近的小岛屿提供补给的难度——但哈灵顿表示，这凸显了美军分散部署并在使用昂贵导弹的同时采用低成本、低特征武器的必要性。

哈灵顿在AUSA大会上告诉《防务新闻》：“这最大限度地增加了联合部队的选择余地，同时也增强了我们士兵的防护能力和生存能力。例如，使用远程单向攻击无人机、无人水面舰艇和远程发射效应器等系统，可以使我们师在为联合部队实现预期目标的同时，也能将我们更大、更精密的系统保留下来，直到需要用于特定用途为止。”