US to deploy more cutting-edge missile systems to Philippines

Manolo Serapio Jr., Bloomberg News on Feb 17, 2026

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The U.S. will deploy more missile systems to the Philippines, a move that will potentially anger China, as the two allies boost their defense ties.

Both Washington and Manila have committed to “continue and work to increase deployments of U.S. cutting-edge missile and unmanned systems to the Philippines,” according to a joint statement on Tuesday following a meeting of senior officials in Manila on Monday.

The U.S. deployed the so-called Typhon missile system to the Philippines in 2024. It can fire multipurpose rockets, including Tomahawk cruise missiles that have a range long enough to hit large portions of China. Beijing has said the weapon “could be destabilizing.”

And last year, the U.S. sent its NMESIS anti-ship missile system to the Southeast Asian nation during friendly annual military drills. Those included exercises in northern Luzon and the Batanes Islands, areas that are near Taiwan.

Washington has supported Manila’s pushback against China’s expansive claims in the resource-rich South China Sea, parts of which the Philippines sees as its exclusive economic zone.

Both sides condemn China’s “illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive activities in the South China Sea” and recognize their “adverse effects on regional peace and stability,” the U.S. State Department said in a dispatch released by the U.S. embassy in Manila on Tuesday.

Asked on Monday whether the Typhon missile system is still on Philippine soil, Manila’s army chief Antonio Nafarrete said “that’s an operational security question.”

Other agreements reached between the U.S. and the Philippines at the Monday gathering include the holding of a fifth “2+2” meeting between defense and foreign affairs officials of the two nations in the U.S. later this year.

Also on the cards for 2026 is the first Luzon Economic Corridor forum in Manila to drive new investment. Its inaugural project would be a freight rail to link two former U.S. military bases in the Philippines’ main Luzon island. The economic corridor was initially launched in 2024 after former U.S. President Joe Biden met with leaders from Japan and the Philippines.

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—With assistance from Cliff Venzon.