The US military has once again turned its attention to China, this time against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The United States reportedly plans to deploy land-based intermediate-range missiles in the Indo-Pacific region next year, the first such deployment in the region since the end of the Cold War. Military experts point out that if this plan is implemented, it will pose a huge threat to regional security, and Russian experts have also reported the "worst possible result" to this. Let's take a look at whether the American plan can be realized, and what the "worst outcome" is for Russian experts. According to reports, the United States is considering deploying land-based versions of "Standard-6" missiles and "Tomahawk" cruise missiles, all of which have ranges between 500 km and 2,700 km, but the specific time and place of deployment have not yet been disclosed. Analysts believe that depending on the current situation, the United States may choose to deploy these medium-range missiles at military bases, because the geographical location in the western Pacific is crucial. The U.S. military's move is indeed aimed at China.
Experts say the U.S. plan is designed to try to contain countries like China and Russia and prepare for a potential conflict. ** Undoubtedly, the best place for the United States to deploy medium-range missiles, because in recent years, the US military has invested a lot of resources here, and it has become an important stronghold of the US military in the Asia-Pacific region. However, Russian experts have also suggested another possibility. Russian experts pointed out that the United States may also choose to deploy in China's Taiwan region, and once successfully deployed, it will pose an unprecedented threat to Sino-US relations and even the situation in the entire Indo-Pacific region. With the rapid improvement of China's "regional denial strategic capability", the military forces of China and the United States in the western Pacific have undergone tremendous changes, and the "aircraft carrier-centric" containment strategy that the United States is proud of has become ineffective. In other words, although the U.S. Navy is still strong at the moment, it has lost the ability to get close to China and exercise deterrence under the anti-ship strike deterrence of PLA missiles.
The PLA Rocket Force's land-based ballistic missile anti-ship capabilities have successfully "denied" US surface ships up to 2,000 kilometers away. Under these circumstances, in order to get close to China for deterrence, the United States has no choice but to make strategic adjustments, abandon the "aircraft carrier-centric system," and adopt the so-called "distributed" combat mode, which has become the main theme of the US military in its Asia-Pacific strategy. If this plan is successfully implemented, what impact will it have on the entire Asia-Pacific geopolitical landscape? This could lead to a situation similar to the "Cuban Missile Crisis" between China and the United States. The answer can be found by referring to the "Cuban Missile Crisis" of 1962. At that time, the crisis broke out in the United States and the Soviet Union, putting the whole world in the shadow of a nuclear war. The United States first deployed land-based intermediate-range missiles and nuclear warheads in Turkey and other neighboring countries of the Soviet Union, and then the Soviet Union chose to send intermediate-range missiles and nuclear warheads to Cuba in order to counteract, thus triggering the "Cuban Missile Crisis."
Similarly, now the deployment of medium-range missiles by the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, whether in **, Taiwan or even the Philippines, has actually posed a threatening effect to China, similar to the situation with the Soviet Union in the past. Therefore, in order to maintain and prevent external forces from interfering in internal affairs, China will inevitably take strong measures, and does not rule out the adoption of "tooth for tooth" countermeasures. As a result, there is a high probability that a "Cuban Missile Crisis" will break out between China and the United States. At present, the Russia-Ukraine war is still ongoing, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is also at risk of spillover, and the United States is preparing to deploy medium-range missiles to the Indo-Pacific region, which is obviously intended to disrupt the situation in the entire Asia-Pacific region. Some analysts believe that the United States is "bringing humiliation upon itself." The United States originally planned to deploy its self-developed "hypersonic missiles" in the Asia-Pacific region, but as we all know, the high-tech project has been "difficult to deliver" in the United States for many years, and seeing the rapid rise of Indo-Pacific forces, the US military has to turn to medium-range missiles to fill the gap.
Although called "land-based medium-range missiles", in fact, it is only a vertical launch system on cruisers and destroyers that is brought ashore to launch ordinary Tomahawk cruise missiles, and this "patchwork version" of land-based medium-range missiles is a joke in itself. The strength of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has put the US military under pressure. Recently, when talking about land-based intermediate-range missiles, the US military even said with some grievances that the "INF Treaty" has given China time to expand its HNF arsenal. This statement is a bit ridiculous, after all, China did not force the United States to sign the INF Treaty. Now the United States is using this as an excuse to claim that the PLA Rocket Force poses a huge threat to US military bases, so it wants to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region. But the truth may not be as smooth as the United States expects. The United States considers land-based intermediate-range missiles to be its "killer weapon" in the Asia-Pacific region, but it has been neglected in South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and other places, and at present, except for South Korea, all other countries have explicitly rejected the US deployment plan.
South Korea** once relented due to political considerations, but it was strongly opposed by its own people and finally ran aground. Therefore, it is not easy for the United States to do things in the Asia-Pacific region. In short, what do you know about the US military's plan to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region? Feel free to share your thoughts and stories in the comment section.