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Mid-Range Capability Launcher from Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, Long Range Fires Battalion, 1st Multi-Domain Task Force arrives as part of the capability’s first deployment into theater on Northern Luzon, Philippines, Apr. 8, 2024. (Courtesy: Capt. Ryan DeBooy/US Army Pacific)
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Tuesday confirmed the first firing of the United States’ Typhon Mid-Range Capability (MRC) System in the country since its arrival in April 2024.
According to the country’s Balikatan spokesperson Col. Dennis Hernandez, the system was used early Tuesday morning to launch a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile from Tacloban Airport in Leyte, at approximately 12:12 a.m.
The missile hit its target more than 600 kilometers away within the grounds of Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija, at around 1 a.m.
According to Hernandez, there are no plans for a second firing of Typhon, but he added that they may probably use it in the future if the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center is conducted again, as well as in other scenarios.
Meanwhile, House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio has since criticized the reported testing of an American mid-range missile as part of the US-Philippine bilateral Exercise Balikatan.
“The use of Tacloban Airport—a civilian facility—as a launch site for a US missile is an extremely alarming escalation. This is not a ‘routine exercise’; this is live-fire testing of an offensive weapon system on Philippine soil,” Tinio said.
— Rex Espiritu
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Credit belongs to: www.manilastandard.net
