As far as naming missiles go, Greek mythology has been a thankful source for inspiration: the British Trident missiles allude to Poseidon’s weapon of choice, and the Aegis missile defence system invokes the shield of Zeus, to name but a few examples. In 2023, a new system joined the family: the ‘Typhon’ is a container-like trailer from which the US Army launches cruise missiles, Tomahawks, and ballistic missiles, SM-6s. Seeing the system in action, the namesake, a Greek monster, seems like an obvious choice. Ancient tragedian Aeschylus described Typhon as a ‘destructive monster of a hundred heads, impetuous . . . hissing out terror with horrid jaws, while from his eyes lightened a hideous glare.’ The Lockheed Martin produced Typhon has capacity for 4 missiles, though their warheads should be more destructive than the monster’s 100. A battery of the system consists of four such launchers, a trailer-based Battery Operations Centre, as well as a trailer for reloading missiles. The missiles that Typhon launches have significant reach. The Typhon-adapted Tomahawk cruise missile has a range of up to 1500 km, while the SM-6 can reach targets of up to 320 km. Europe badly needs a capability such as the one provided by Typhon. Under the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), the US had agreed with Russia not to station intermediate range ground-launched missiles in Europe. The withdrawal of Russia and the US from the treaty in 2019 left Europe unprepared. It had not the capability to answer the significant build-up of intermediate range capabilities near its eastern flank.
Typhon, European Deterrence and Industrial Ambition for Deep Precision Strike (Linus Terhorst – RUSI)
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