US ground forces test HIMARS long-range rocket launcher in drill with Japan

Advanced weapons system may be part of new tactics to break any PLA blockade if conflict arises in Taiwan Strait, analyst says

Test coincides with Japan’s stated ‘sense of crisis’ over Beijing’s intensified military activities in the strait

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The advanced HIMARS weapons system was live-fired during a joint military exercise between US and Japanese troops. Photo: Handout

Published: 7:00pm, 17 Jul 2021Updated: 9:29pm, 17 Jul 2021

US ground forces conducted their first test of an advanced mobile rocket launcher during a recent large-scale joint exercise with their Japanese counterparts, indicating it could be deployed in the region as part of preparations for a potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait, according to military analysts.

The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) was fired on the Japanese island of Hokkaido as part of the two countries’ annual Orient Shield joint live-fire drill which ended last Wednesday, US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported.

The large-scale joint exercise coincided with Japan’s defence and foreign ministries both raising concerns over Tokyo’s “sense of crisis” in relation to the Taiwan Strait, where Beijing has intensified its military activities in recent years. Some 380 PLA warplanes entered Taiwan’s southwestern air defence zone in 2020.

Beijing regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. It strongly opposes any foreign interference on what it regards as a domestic issue, and was quick to rebuke Japan’s concerns over instability in the Taiwan Strait.

Song Zhongping, a former instructor of the PLA’s Second Artillery Corps – the predecessor to China’s Rocket Force – said the HIMARS test was aimed at promoting the new weapons system to Japan’s 2,100-strong Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, set up in 2018 as part of its Self-Defence Force ground troops.

“The US-Japan joint military exercises have taken the People’s Liberation Army as their simulated enemy for years,” Song said. “Compared with the active M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) used by the new Japanese amphibious brigade, the manoeuvrability and overall integrated offensive-defensive capability of the HIMARS are much more powerful.”

The week-long exercises, which began on June 24, brought together 3,000 troops from Japan’s Self-Defence Force and the US Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps, according to the Stars and Stripes report, which added that the two countries had been strengthening their alliance as China continued to expand its military with the stated goal of reunifying Taiwan.

The HIMARS, which has a precision strike firing range of up to 300km (186 miles), is the newest member of the MLRS family. It has a highly mobile artillery rocket launching system which can fire six rockets or one army tactical missile system (ATACMS) at hostile artillery, air defences, light armour vehicles and troops.