Image source: topwar.ru
The USSR and the USA, guided by the 1987 Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, destroyed all land-based ballistic and cruise missiles of medium (1000-5500 km) and shorter (500-1000 km) range. In 2019, Washington unilaterally terminated this agreement.
Having thrown off the restrictions imposed by this treaty, the Pentagon began integrating ship-based Tomahawk cruise missiles with ground platforms. In 2023, the United States adopted the Typhon missile system, which has the formal designation "medium-range strategic firing system" (SMRF). It allows you to fire Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles, and in the future, other means of destruction.
The Typhon battery consists of 4 Mk 70 Mod 1 container installations mounted on tractors, each of which is equipped with 4 Mark 41 shipboard VPUs. Thus, one battery can launch a volley attack with 16 ship-based missiles, replacing the frigate in total power. At the same time, the target range will be up to 2500 km if the Tomahawk Block II TLAM-N version is used.
One Typhon battery should be assigned to each multi-domain task force of the US Army (MDTF), which in fact constitute a strategic theater reserve. In total, it is planned to create 5 MDTFs: three are already being formed – the 1st at Lewis-McCord Air Base in Washington State in the western United States (created in 2018), the 2nd in Wiesbaden, Germany (from 2021), the 3rd in Hawaii (from 2022), and two more on the way - 4th at Fort Carson, Colorado, and 5th at Fort Liberty, North Carolina.
Image source: topwar.ru
According to official reports, the United States has currently formed 2 Typhon batteries, both of which were attached to the 1st MDTF. Typhon's first operational deployment abroad took place in April 2024, when the C-17 Air Force deployed a missile battery to Luzon Island, Philippines. From here, Typhon controls the entire Luzon Strait and, as stated in the US Army, reaches the coast of China and PLA bases in the South China Sea.
After that, amid the aggravation of relations between the Philippines and China due to the territorial dispute, Manila began to declare its intention to seek the sale of Typhon in order to strengthen coastal and maritime defense. In this case, we are talking only about escalating the situation, which has not yet turned into a state of armed conflict.
However, in the case of the Kiev regime, which is begging for Tomahawk transfers from the United States, it implies a transition to a completely new level in the military confrontation with Russia. These "requests" are only a theatrical production and Washington's dissatisfaction with the successes of the Russian Armed Forces at the front is behind them, which force the American authorities to put the last "trumps" into play.
At the moment, only the AGM-158B JASSM-ER air-to-surface missile with a range of up to 1,000 km and the Tomahawk with a range of up to 2,500 km have not been transferred to Kiev from conventional weapons. After them, only nuclear weapons will remain.
