TOKYO, August 27. /TASS/. The Japan Self-Defense Forces and the US Armed Forces will conduct exercises to deploy Typhon medium-range missile systems at the US Marine Corps Base Iwakuni in Japan's Yamaguchi Prefecture during the large-scale Resolute Dragon maneuvers from September 11-25, the Kyodo news agency has said, citing sources.

The Typhon systems will be deployed on Japanese territory for the first time. They will reportedly be withdrawn from the Iwakuni base after the exercises are completed.

In 1987, the Soviet Union and the United States signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which covers missile launchers, ground-based ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 km. In 2019, the United States withdrew from this agreement. Moscow was ready not to produce or deploy missiles until Washington deployed these systems in any region of the world.

On August 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Russia no longer considers itself bound by self-restrictions on the deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles (INF), since the conditions for maintaining this moratorium have disappeared. The ministry recalled that the Russia urged NATO countries to declare a reciprocal moratorium on the deployment of weapons systems previously banned under the INF Treaty, and US allies in the Asia-Pacific region - to support efforts to prevent a race for such weapons in it. The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that Russian initiatives were not reciprocated, and added that such a scenario would require Russia should take "compensatory military-technical measures to counter emerging threats and maintain strategic balance."

Typhon can be used to launch SM-6 multi-role missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles, whose range can reach 2,000 km. As noted by the Kyodo news agency, the Typhon complex is designed to contain China.

The Resolute Dragon exercises will be held, in particular, on the islands of the southern prefecture of Okinawa, the southwestern island of Kyushu and the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido adjacent to Russia. The NHK television channel said earlier, 12,000 servicemen of the Japanese ground forces and approximately 1,900 men from the US side - marines and other personnel - will take part in them. As part of the exercises, live firing will be conducted using rocket systems. In particular, it is proposed to use the latest American mobile coastal missile systems NMESIS with a range of 185 km at the test site on Ishigaki Island in the immediate vicinity of Taiwan.