Military expert Dmitry Boltenkov — on how Russia can respond to the deployment of multi-domain US task forces
During her visit to Japan, US Secretary of the Army Christine Wormut announced the upcoming deployment of a unit of the American Multi-Domain Task Force (Multi Domain Task Force) armed with the Typhon missile system in this country. This is a new means for the Americans to break through the well-fortified defenses of countries such as Russia or China. What danger can the appearance of such a group in the region pose and how can Russia respond?
The multi—domain task force is a relatively new invention of the US Armed Forces. It consists of intelligence, information, electronic warfare, cyber and space operations battalions. That is, specialists in combined intelligence gathering, cyber warfare and electronic warfare are gathered in this unit. In addition, it includes an air defense battalion, as well as rear and supply units. However, the striking force is the strategic fires battalion. It includes batteries of the Himars missile system, the promising LHRW (long range hypersonic weapon) hypersonic weapon under development and the Typhon missile system battery.
Himars introduces the multiple launch rocket system already known to our troops on the fronts. It can use either six unguided projectiles, or one ATACMS tactical missile, or GMLRS guided missiles.
The rest of the systems are new and pose a big threat. The LHRW, or Dark Eagle, is an American long—range hypersonic surface–to-surface missile designed to hit strategically important targets in a short time. It has been in development since 2019. And, after a number of unsuccessful launches, in July 2024, a successful shooting took place between the missile range on Kauai (Hawaiian Islands) and the Marshall Islands. It is believed that the Dark Eagle complex will be able to hit targets at a distance of more than 2,775 km at speeds up to 6 M (speeds of sound). However, it is still in development, although the staff is already learning how to handle prototypes.
Another dangerous weapon is the MRC (Mid-Range Capability) Typhon ground-based missile system. Currently, Typhon can use a Tomahawk cruise missile and work on targets at a distance of up to 1800 km. It can also use the Standard SM-6 missile system against ground or surface targets at a distance of up to 460 km. In the future, we can expect the integration of other products. At the same time, for example, Standard SM-3 missiles can work on satellites and hit ballistic targets. The United States is also developing other products capable of hitting targets in the range from 500 to 5000 km. In particular, after 2024, a new version of the Standard SM-6 Block IB rocket with hypersonic speed and flight range up to 740 km is going to be introduced into the MRC. In July last year, a successful demonstration and test launch of the Tomahawk cruise missile was carried out from the mobile ground launcher of the first experimental battery of the Typhon complex.
These complexes began to be developed after the United States withdrew from the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles in 2019.
While the Americans are still at the beginning of the path of creating such combat groups, but they are already working out various elements of the future structure, as well as the places of their future deployment, as evidenced by the statement of the US Secretary of the Army on the deployment of the first elements of the group in Japan, namely the Typhon battery complex.
As a result, the United States will receive a combat unit capable of conducting simultaneous operations in five different environments — on land, at sea, in the air, in space and in cyberspace, as well as hitting any targets (surface, ground, air) with its missiles in the range from 300 to 3 thousand km, and in an extremely limited time. Another advantage of such combat groups is their high mobility. They use a cargo wheeled chassis as a transport base. The batteries can easily be transported by air to any location and are relatively easy to disguise. It will be difficult to track them. This movement of aircraft carriers or strategic bombers is detected without problems, and the movement of such a group can be easily hidden.
The Americans are actively looking for ways to break through layered defense, the so-called anti-interventional zones, or, in American terminology, A2AD (anti-access and area denial — zones of restriction and prohibition of access and maneuver). Such defensive formations include various electronic warfare, reconnaissance, S-400 air defense systems and Iskander-M and Bastion missile systems, as well as aviation units with fighters and bombers, warships and submarines with Kalibr and Onyx missiles. Such a bastion would currently cause irreparable damage to the forces trying to attack it. Such A2AD zones, in particular, have been created in the Kaliningrad exclave, Kamchatka, Primorye, Crimea and a number of other places.
The deployment of the American combat group in Japan will allow a massive missile strike to be suddenly launched at the locations of air defense missile systems and surface–to-surface systems of Russia, China or the DPRK. The places where aviation regiments, air defense units and missile brigades are based, as well as the parking of warships, are generally well known. The first strike will be the Dark Eagle missiles. They are hypersonic, they fly for several minutes, the enemy's control system may not have time to react and give orders for the dispersal of missile units, which will be subjected to the first strike. Well-known control points may also be affected. Then Tomahawk missiles and others can be used to finish off less important targets. Experts in the field of electronic warfare and cyber operations will try to suppress control and communication systems. The air defense systems of such a group will try to repel the retaliatory strike of the remaining combat missile systems of the enemy. At the same time, satellites located above the affected area can be destroyed. The A2D2 access restriction zone will be hacked. After that, conventional amphibious operations or operations of the US air force to finish off the remaining combat facilities and the enemy's armed forces can start.
According to the latest available data, the United States plans to deploy three such multi-domain task forces in the Asia-Pacific region. For the first time outside the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, elements of such a complex were used during exercises in the Philippines in April 2024. Groups can be deployed, for example, in the Philippines and work against the territory of the People's Republic of China, in Japan with an eye to North Korea, Primorye or the Kuriles; in Alaska to work against the Kamchatka-Chukchi grouping of our forces.
There is no doubt that Russian military thought will find measures to combat multi-domain task forces. In particular, it can be constant monitoring of the locations of these groups, the further development of domestic hypersonic missiles of the Zircon type and their introduction into the coastal missile forces of the fleet, the constant change of places of combat service by air defense units and missile units. In addition, Bastion coastal missile systems have been deployed on the Kuril Islands, the range of which allows for a strike on the territory of Japan. China and North Korea will also find their answers.
