US considers deploying new ground-based missiles in Indian Ocean

In an interview with Nikkei Asia published on December 3, Rob Phillips, a spokesman for the Army unit of the US Indo- Pacific Command, said options under consideration include land-based versions of the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) and the Tomahawk cruise missile. The missiles under consideration have a range of between 500 and 2,700 kilometers.

US and Philippine militaries conduct joint exercises in March

This would be the first time the US has deployed such missiles since the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty expired in 2019. The treaty, signed between the US and the Soviet Union in 1987, banned the countries from developing and possessing ground-launched missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 km.

Mr. Phillips did not provide details about where and when the US planned to deploy the missiles.

But according to expert Ankit Panda, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (a Washington DC-based think tank), the US Army will deploy medium-range missile units mainly in the US territory of Guam in the Western Pacific . The purpose of this is to provide rapid support to Washington's allies in Asia in case of emergency.

Currently, Japan and the Philippines are reluctant to host new US forces for fear of being directly targeted in a crisis, according to Nikkei Asia . White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in January that the US has no plans to deploy new ground-based missiles in Japan.

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