US Army long-range fires make a splash on the frontline with China

Military Times | Christopher Woody

U.S. Army soldiers have intensified training with long-range weapons along the first island chain, from Balabac in the southern Philippines to Hokkaido in northern Japan, in larger and more complex exercises with allies. The effort responds to China’s growing missile arsenal, which U.S. planners fear could deny access to the Western Pacific.

HIMARS has conducted land-attack and maritime-strike missions with ranges of a few dozen to a few hundred miles. It first operated in Japan in 2021 and reached an island 150 miles east of Taiwan during Keen Sword. In the Philippines it has moved to Palawan, northern Luzon, Itbayat only 100 miles from Taiwan, and Balabac for live-fire. Typhon, able to fire SM-6 missiles a few hundred miles and Tomahawk missiles up to 1,000 miles, has remained in the Philippines since 2024, was test-fired nearly 400 miles in May 2026, and has returned to Japan. Gen. Ronald Clark called the rapid movement of launchers and munitions a joint success that gives adversaries pause. Maj. Gen. Bernard Harrington noted more than 30 consecutive months of forward presence and the need to master sustainment and sensor-to-shooter links. Chinese assessments stress the difficulty of mobility, concealment and resupply on small islands near Taiwan. Harrington pointed to lower-cost drones and unmanned vessels to preserve larger systems.

Comment

The repeated movement of HIMARS and Typhon across the first island chain tests sustainment under tight geographic limits. Small islands near Taiwan offer limited space for concealment and complicate resupply once stocks are drawn. The same constraints that Chinese assessments highlight also shape how U.S. and allied forces practise rapid insertion and live-fire sequences.

Those limits produce a second-order effect on force design. The emphasis on one-way-attack drones, unmanned surface vessels and launched effects is presented as a way to generate effects while husbanding the larger, more expensive missiles for selected targets. Sustainment shortfalls on remote islands therefore feed directly into the parallel development of lower-signature systems.

Strategic Question for Discussion

If the logistical constraints on small islands near Taiwan continue to shape HIMARS and Typhon employment, which factor would weigh more heavily in a prolonged crisis: rapid launcher movement or the availability of lower-signature alternatives?

The pattern suggests that mobility alone does not resolve the resupply problem once stocks are expended. Lower-signature systems gain weight precisely because the same island geography that enables forward presence also limits the volume and frequency of replenishment for larger missiles.

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