South China Sea: will Beijing ramp up militarisation after US missile system deployed in the Philippines?
- Mid-range launcher is ‘powerful weapon’ capable of striking mainland China, analysts say
- ‘Growing threat’ from US could justify even more PLA forces in disputed waters, expert says
The MRC is a land-based, ground-launched system that improves the military’s multi-domain capability. The launcher can fire the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM), with operational ranges of more than 240km (150 miles) and 2,500km, respectively.
It is the first time that such a weapon system has been deployed in the Asia-Pacific region since the 1987 US-Soviet Union Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty prohibited the development and possession of land-based missiles ranging from 500km to 5,500km.
Washington began developing new intermediate-range missiles after it withdrew from the INF Treaty in 2019, citing Moscow’s alleged violations of the agreement, and amid China’s increasing military activity in the Indo-Pacific region, most notably the expansion of its missile forces, according to a Pentagon report.
The Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday that it “firmly opposed” the deployment of the MRC weapons system in the Philippines, and urged the US to “earnestly respect the security concerns of other countries”.