In January 2024, the US Army received a second battery of a short- and medium-range missile complex (Mid-Range Capability, or MRC), which has the official name Typhon. This complex is special in that two types of missiles can be fired from it – Tomahawk in the Block IV and Block V versions with a launch range of up to 1,800 kilometers and anti-aircraft SM-6 on a quasi-ballistic trajectory for striking ground targets, the launch range, in this case, is 460 kilometers.
The second Typhon battery will also be part of the 1st Long-Range Fires Battalion of the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF), according to the official resource of the US Army.
Delivery of the second battery of the Typhon missile system to the US Army, January 2024, photo – US Army Pacific Public Affairs Office
The US Army received the first battery of the Typhon complex in December 2022, and the state of full combat readiness was reached already in July 2023. Based on publicly available images, one battery of the Typhon complex consists of four mobile launchers, a missile reloading machine and a mobile command post (Block Operations Center).
Thus, at the same time, we can get an answer to the question of whether the Americans now have ground-based launchers for Tomahawk, how many there are, and how long it takes to achieve combat readiness.
The answer is yes, but only 8 units can fire a total salvo of up to 32 missiles in total, or up to 16 missiles per battery; it took six months to reach combat readiness in the case of the first battery. At the same time, it is also worth making an amendment that the US plans to deploy Typhon precisely in the Pacific operational zone.
The launcher of the Typhon medium-range missile complex, July 2023, photo – USArmy
We have already talked about the features of the Typhon missile complex of the US Army before, so we will repeat it briefly. The main feature is that this complex is the first in 30 years that allows the Americans to use the Tomahawk in the ground version.
A special feature is in the design of Typhon. To create this missile complex, American engineers “transplanted” four cells from the Mark 41 anti-aircraft missile system, which is equipped with destroyers of the US Navy, onto the wheeled chassis, and the Typhon fire control system is based on the Aegis Combat System. The option of using the SM-6 to attack surface targets was developed for the first time by the US Navy back in 2016.
Defense Express previously wrote that more than $160 million per missile is a lot, even for the new LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM, so the program is awaiting verification.
