U.S. Marines used mobile launcher systems in a live-fire exercise this week at the U.S. military’s Camp Fuji east maneuver area in Gotemba, southwest of Tokyo, in a demonstration of Pacific deterrence and cooperation with Japanese partners. The exercise lasted only a few minutes, but it showed the machinery of empire doing what it does best: rehearsing how to hide, fire, and move before anyone below gets a say.
Who Gets the Firepower
The Marines fired rockets from High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, trucks that were hidden from view and then moved back to cover after firing. The first rocket fired from the mobile launcher screamed toward its target with a burst of flame and a thunderclap boom in the foothills of Japan’s Mount Fuji, followed by another five rockets in rapid succession. A second HIMARS truck then drove out of a concealed position in a copse of evergreens, fired its salvo of six rockets, and retreated back to cover.
The maneuvers used dummy rockets, described as concrete-filled tubes with no explosives, and were carried out under strict safety guidelines and observed by Japanese military officials, who shut down a local road during the exercise in case one of the projectiles fell short. The article said the live-fire exercise was slower than the HIMARS would be used in combat because of the precautions. Even in rehearsal, the apparatus demands control over roads, space, and movement around it.
Sgt. Kevin Alvarez, section chief of one of the two Fox Battery, 3rd Battalion, 12th Marines, 3rd Marine Division HIMARS involved in the Camp Fuji exercise, said, “It depends on the crew, but it can get as fast as four minutes, (even) two minutes sometimes.”
What They Call Deterrence
Lt. Col. Ryan Anness, commander of the 3rd Battalion, said, “They’re much quicker, much faster, and much easier to hide than, say, traditional cannon artillery, and obviously having the precision fire weapons and having the ability to hide easier is why so many countries, and why it’s important for us, to have the HIMARS.” He also said, “Being able to have long-range precision-fire weapons provides deterrence here in the Pacific, and we train with our Japanese partners as much as we can to make sure we’re ready.”
The Pentagon’s latest annual report to Congress says the goal is to “deny the ability of any country in the Indo-Pacific to dominate us or our allies,” and that the priority is bolstering deterrence “through strength, not confrontation.” That is the language of managed escalation dressed up as restraint, with the military promising peace by perfecting the tools of war.
Euan Graham, a senior defense analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said, “The U.S. does not want China to invade Taiwan, but it would not be relying on the traditional aircraft carrier-based attack wings of the past.” He also said, “In Iran, with the U.S. conflict there, there were over 40 U.S. aircraft, manned and unmanned, either destroyed or damaged against a much less capable adversary, so in the case of conflict with China that vulnerability would be much greater,” and added, “That’s why we’re seeing the U.S. emphasizing ... these smaller units.”
The Missiles and the Map
The article said the HIMARS, introduced about 20 years ago, has been used in Iraq and Afghanistan and became widely known after Ukraine used it in its fight against Russia. The article said the HIMARS can fire a variety of missiles, that the U.S. initially provided only shorter-range munitions to Ukraine, and later allowed Kyiv to have the ATACMS, or Army Tactical Missile System, which can hit targets at about 300 kilometers, or 180 miles, away.
It said that in the first days of the war against Iran after the U.S. and Israel attacked on Feb. 28, the HIMARS was used to fire both ATACMS and, for the first time in combat, the longer-range Precision Strike Missiles, sinking “multiple” Iranian surface ships and a submarine in port, according to Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The article said the PrSM can reach targets at ranges greater than 500 kilometers, or 310 miles, according to manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
It said that together with the Army’s Typhon, another truck-based launching system that shoots longer-range Tomahawk missiles and others but is less maneuverable than the HIMARS, the two systems could cover the Taiwan Strait and the strategically important Luzon Strait if deployed on Taiwan and the Philippine and Japanese islands nearby, Graham said. It said both waterways would be critical to any Chinese invasion or blockade plan.
What emerges is a familiar hierarchy: military planners, analysts, and manufacturers talking in the language of “deterrence,” while local roads are closed, terrain is controlled, and ordinary people are expected to accept the choreography of war as normal. The exercise at Camp Fuji was brief, but the message was not subtle. The region is being prepared for a future shaped by mobile launchers, hidden positions, and the permanent logic of domination.