The US Army has deployed a midrange missile system, capable of striking China, on Japanese soil for the first time after months of increased tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.

The joint Resolute Dragon exercise, which begins this month with more than 19,0000 military personnel from both the US and Japan, marks the first time a weapon such as the Typhon has been deployed so close to Beijing.

Resolute Dragon will conclude on September 25 with roughly 4,200 US troops and a 14,000-strong Japanese force carrying out drills from Hokkaido to Okinawa.

The Typhon missile system, to be rolled out at the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni base, south of Hiroshima, can strike targets with Tomahawk projectiles up to 1,600 kilometers away, almost precisely the straight-line distance between the Iwakuni base and Beijing.

Tomahawk missiles provide high precision striking ability and can be guided to evade enemy interceptors – the Japan Self-Defense Forces plan to introduce these weapons alongside home-built missiles to gain counterstrike capabilities.

Deployment is solely for training purposes, with officials confirming no live fires of the missile system planned to take place, and there are no plans to keep the system in Japan beyond September 25.

But the deployment itself is a significant shift in the US military posture in the Indo-Pacific region following repeated acts of aggression and incursion carried out by China.

In June 2025, a Chinese aircraft carrier group entered waters near Japan’s exclusive economic zone, while last month saw China Coast Guard vessels intrude into Japan’s territorial waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands, disputed by both countries and Taiwan.

The highly mobile coastal anti-ship missile system, Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, will also feature during the two-week exercise.

NMESIS, as well as other systems, will be used in anti-ship and anti-aircraft combat training, though no live rounds are expected to be fired.

A hypothetical enemy has not been named by either the U.S. or Japan ahead of the drills, though China’s increasingly assertive naval and air activity provides scenarios to simulate.

Last year, US forces brought the Typhon to Asia for the first time, to the Philippines, which also shares territorial disputes with China.

After being placed in northern Luzon for military exercises, the equipment remained after the drills, and likely still does, drawing criticism from China.

Iwakuni air base, where the Typhon will be based for Resolute Dragon, is a key US military hub used for deterrence against China and North Korea, housing F-35B fighter jets.

“Japan and Taiwan are currently defenseless against the medium-range missiles China has deployed,” said Tsuneo Watanabe, senior fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.

Tsuneo added that using such missile systems during joint exercises shows the “US military and the US Defense Department understand the importance of demonstrating their capabilities to China”.