US Army Forces Assigned to Europe Fired Typhon Missile System for the First Time
Soldiers from the US Army’s Multi-Domain Command in Europe have fired the Typhon missile system for the primary time, a step towards probably bringing a brand new long-range strike functionality to the European theater.
The cell, ground-based Typhon system, which is also referred to as the Army’s Mid-Range Capability, can fireplace Tomahawk cruise missiles and Standard Missile-6s, giving the service choices for hanging targets at better distances.
The weapon has already been deployed within the Indo-Pacific, the place its presence has pissed off China. The US and allies have examined the weapon in workout routines getting ready for a Pacific battle.
On Thursday, Multi-Domain Command – Europe introduced its first live-fire of a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile from the newly fielded Typhon system. The check occurred at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California final month. It marks the third time Typhon has been fired within the continental US.
Soldiers from third Battalion, twelfth Field Artillery Regiment, a long-range precision fires unit inside Multi-Domain Command – Europe, carried out the testing. This unit operates one of many Army’s 4 Typhon batteries, and troops went via 5 weeks of coaching to discover ways to function and preserve the system.
Photo courtesy of US Navy
“They’re extremely good at what they do now,” Lt. Col. Derek Bartlett, the battalion commander, mentioned in a press launch, including that he is now “very snug deploying them ahead after these 5 weeks.”
Army leaders mentioned that Typhon would enhance US firepower in Europe, including one other layer to the Army’s capacity to strike targets throughout a number of domains.
“Typhon offers me extra choices as an all-domain fires commander to carry crucial targets in danger at better vary and creates alternatives for the Joint Force,” Brig. Gen. Steven Carpenter, head of Multi-Domain Command – Europe, mentioned in remarks shared with Business Insider. “This live-fire demonstrates our Soldiers’ capacity to show a newly fielded system into a reputable fight functionality that strengthens deterrence and, if required, helps us win.”
Manufactured by protection contractor Lockheed Martin, Typhon is meant to fill a niche within the US arsenal. Its improvement adopted the 2019 US withdrawal from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty over issues about Russian violations. That specific arms management treaty prohibited nuclear and traditional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to five,000 kilometers.
US Army photograph by Sgt. Perla Alfaro
“We get that vary for that combatant commander to offer them choices and capabilities the place they actually have not had it earlier than from the land power,” Bartlett mentioned within the launch.
The Army has already been placing these capabilities to the check within the Pacific.
Typhon was first deployed abroad in April 2024 within the Philippines amid a joint train between Manila and Washington. At the time, US Army Pacific known as it a “landmark deployment.”
In July 2025, in the course of the Talisman Sabre train, the US Army fired the Typhon system for the primary time west of the cross-border date line within the Pacific, launching a Standard Missile-6 towards a maritime goal. The missile efficiently struck and sank the goal.
Darrell Ames/Portfolio Acquisition Executive FIRES
Earlier this week, Maj. Gen. Bernard Harrington, head of the seventh Infantry Division, Multi-Domain Command – Pacific, instructed audiences on the Association of the United States Army’s exhibition in Washington, DC, that Typhon has maintained a forward presence in the region for round 30 consecutive months.
“And actually what that enables us to do just isn’t solely practice and share classes on that gear, but it surely additionally permits us to find out about how you can function within the atmosphere,” Harrington mentioned.
“How do you maintain within the atmosphere? How do you defend these varieties of methods within the atmosphere? How do you join sensors to shooters? And to have the ability to try this persistently ahead and persistently with our ally within the Philippines, and our companions, is extremely vital,” he added.
Typhon’s presence within the Indo-Pacific has repeatedly irritated Beijing. In 2024, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s overseas ministry, known as the deployment “a transfer to show again the wheel of historical past,” including that “it gravely threatens regional nations’ safety, incites geopolitical confrontation, and has aroused excessive vigilance and issues of nations within the area.”
The Chinese military’s Rocket Force notably maintains a really substantial missile arsenal that features medium- and intermediate-range methods that put US belongings and bases, in addition to allies and companions, in danger.
