The U.S. military will set up temporary bases along Japan’s southwestern Nansei island chain and the Philippines to deploy missile units in the event of a Taiwan contingency, sources familiar with Japan-U.S. relations said Sunday.
The deployment of the missile units will be incorporated in the first joint operation plan for the United States and Japan to cope with a contingency involving Taiwan and China, which regards the self-ruled island as its own, to be formulated in December.
The U.S. Marine Littoral Regiment, which possesses a multiple-launch High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, will be deployed along the island chain stretching from the Japanese prefectures of Kagoshima and Okinawa toward Taiwan, according to the sources.
From an early stage, when a Taiwan contingency becomes highly imminent, temporary bases will be set up on inhabited islands of the island chain, based on U.S. military guidelines for dispatching Marines in small formations to several locations.
The Japan Self-Defense Forces is expected to mainly engage in logistical support for the marine unit, including supplying fuel and ammunition.
The U.S. Army will deploy the Multi-Domain Task Force’s long-range fire units in the Philippines. The MDTF is designed to operate in a multi-domain environment, including air, land, water, space, cyber, and information.
In February 2023, the United States and the Philippines agreed to increase the number of bases available for U.S. military use in the Philippines from five to nine. These bases are expected to be utilized during a Taiwan contingency.
Japan and the United States have been strengthening defense cooperation and boosting the interoperability of the SDF and the U.S. military in the face of threats from China’s military buildup, as well as North Korea’s nuclear and missile development and growing military ties with Russia.
In July, Japan and the Philippines signed a bilateral defense agreement to facilitate joint exercises for closer security cooperation.
