US ground forces test HIMARS long-range rocket launcher in drill with Japan
- Advanced weapons system may be part of new tactics to break any PLA blockade if conflict arises in Taiwan Strait, analyst says
- Test coincides with Japan’s stated ‘sense of crisis’ over Beijing’s intensified military activities in the strait
The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) was fired on the Japanese island of Hokkaido as part of the two countries’ annual Orient Shield joint live-fire drill which ended last Wednesday, US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported.
Beijing regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. It strongly opposes any foreign interference on what it regards as a domestic issue, and was quick to rebuke Japan’s concerns over instability in the Taiwan Strait.
Song Zhongping, a former instructor of the PLA’s Second Artillery Corps – the predecessor to China’s Rocket Force – said the HIMARS test was aimed at promoting the new weapons system to Japan’s 2,100-strong Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, set up in 2018 as part of its Self-Defence Force ground troops.
“The US-Japan joint military exercises have taken the People’s Liberation Army as their simulated enemy for years,” Song said. “Compared with the active M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) used by the new Japanese amphibious brigade, the manoeuvrability and overall integrated offensive-defensive capability of the HIMARS are much more powerful.”
The week-long exercises, which began on June 24, brought together 3,000 troops from Japan’s Self-Defence Force and the US Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps, according to the Stars and Stripes report, which added that the two countries had been strengthening their alliance as China continued to expand its military with the stated goal of reunifying Taiwan.
The HIMARS, which has a precision strike firing range of up to 300km (186 miles), is the newest member of the MLRS family. It has a highly mobile artillery rocket launching system which can fire six rockets or one army tactical missile system (ATACMS) at hostile artillery, air defences, light armour vehicles and troops.
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The HIMARS and other powerful rocket launchers are part of two arms deals, worth US$2.8 billion, which were finalised between Washington and Taipei last month. Their inclusion in the deal was prompted by China’s deployment in 2019 of its Type PCL191 MLRS, with a range of 350km (217 miles) to the Eastern Theatre Command, which oversees the Taiwan Strait.
Earlier this year, the US Defence News website published video footage of a US Army demonstration of how to deploy C-130 transport aircraft to send the HIMARS and other advanced missile launchers to take out enemy ships and other defensive systems in multidomain operations on islands in the Indo-Pacific theatre.
“These are the new combat tactics the US Army has come up with to break a PLA blockade in the event of any contingencies in the region,” said Macau-based military observer Antony Wong Tong.
The Taiwanese military is expected to take delivery of the HIMARS by 2027 and the more powerful Harpoon coastal defence system by 2028.
Collin Koh, a research fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the HIMARS would help Taiwan to counter a possible PLA attack in any contingency.
“So far Taiwan has relied on the RT-2000, which is developed locally. It’s handicapped by short range, though an extended rocket variant is in the works, which is reportedly capable of a range more than 100km,” Koh said.
“[The HIMARS] would be useful for counter-amphibious attacks … when deployed to the outlying Taiwan-held islands such as Quemoy, Matsu and Penghu.”
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Drew Thompson, a former US defence department official with responsibility for managing US relations with mainland China and Taiwan, said Japan had long been concerned about the opaque, rapid, large-scale expansion of the PLA in the past few decades.
“Japanese leaders, like their American counterparts, have expressed their concerns about China’s use of coercion and threats to use military force, which would be destabilising and threaten regional peace and stability on China’s periphery,” he said.
“China’s foreign policy under Xi Jinping and its military expansion represent a threat to countries on China’s periphery that they are sensibly responding to through defence acquisitions, training and partnerships, to deter China from using force to settle its disputes, or if necessary, respond to the use of force should deterrence fail.”