Valiant Shield 26 Begins: Changes in Deterrence in the Western Pacific Demonstrated by the Japan-U.S. Self-Defense Forces and Typhon

The name Kanoya Air Base is beginning to take on more significance than just a training location in this year's Valiant Shield 26. On June 22, U.S. defense authorities announced that Valiant Shield 2026 had commenced in the Indo-Pacific. The exercise will run until July 1 and will take place in the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Japan, and the Mariana Islands training air and sea areas. The Yomiuri-affiliated Japan News also reported on the 23rd that the Japan Self-Defense Forces are participating in a U.S.-led multinational exercise that has started at multiple locations, including Kagoshima Prefecture, Hokkaido, and Hawaii.

The Focus of the 11th Exercise Has Shifted from Maritime to Multidomain

Valiant Shield is a biennial U.S. military exercise that began in 2006, and this is the 11th iteration. According to U.S. defense authorities, starting in 2024, it will change its character to a multinational integrated field training exercise, and this is the second time that the Japan Self-Defense Forces will be deeply integrated into the planning and execution. The training items will not only include detection, location identification, tracking, and engagement of maritime forces but will also focus on interoperability in a multidomain environment that includes air, space, land, and cyber.

What is noteworthy here is the involvement of the U.S. Space Force and the U.S. Transportation Command. During the Cold War, maritime exercises were heavily focused on how quickly fleets could assemble and how accurately they could conduct anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare. In the current Western Pacific, that is no longer sufficient. The core of the training will revolve around how to maintain dispersed forces, assuming that satellites, transportation, supply, and command communications will be under attack. This is directly related to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's SLOC (Sea Lines of Communication) defense challenges.

What Typhon and HIMARS Demonstrate in Kanoya

According to reports based on announcements from the Japanese side, the Japanese portion of Valiant Shield 2026 will be conducted from June 22 to July 1, including areas around Ishinomaki City, Amami City and Ryukyu Town on Amami Oshima, and Japanese bases and facilities in the surrounding air and sea areas. Furthermore, information from the Ministry of Defense indicated that the U.S. Army's Typhon missile system and HIMARS will be deployed at the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's Kanoya Air Base and will participate in integrated anti-ship warfare training in the waters around Kanoya and Amami Oshima. However, live-fire exercises are not planned at Kanoya.

Typhon is a ground-launched, medium-range capability linked to the operation of Tomahawk cruise missiles and SM-6. The U.S. has also demonstrated similar capabilities during the Balikatan exercise in the Philippines. What is more subtle in this report is that it is stated that after the exercise, Typhon and HIMARS will be stored at U.S. military bases within Japan. Last year's temporary deployment was explained as being removed from Japan after the exercise. While it cannot be definitively stated that this is a permanent deployment, it can be seen as a step forward from the previous stage of "coming, pretending to shoot, and leaving immediately."

The Demands on the Self-Defense Forces Are Increasing

Japan's participation is being led by the Joint Operations Command and the Joint Staff Office, with several allied nations expected to join in some of the training under the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. From the perspective of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, this is not merely support for the U.S. military. The training lines connecting Kanoya, Amami, Okinawa, Guam, and Hawaii create a framework that restrains enemy fleets within the inner side of the first island chain while maintaining supply, air, and maritime traffic routes on the outer side.

The context during the same period cannot be ignored. During the U.S.-Japan Extended Deterrence Dialogue held in Tokyo from June 8 to 9, the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to Japan's defense with a full range of defense capabilities, including nuclear, while Japan confirmed that support for U.S. military activities contributes to deterrence. The delegation included representatives from the U.S. Strategic Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Forces Japan, and the Japan Self-Defense Forces Joint Staff Office, and they inspected the escort ship Kirishima at Yokosuka Base. Valiant Shield 26 also serves as a venue to test this political rhetoric in operational terms.

Deterrence is not about showing off equipment; it is about convincing the adversary of the ability to keep that equipment operational during a crisis. The core of this exercise is precisely about that sustainability.

The Difficulty of Simultaneously Observing Hokkaido and the Southwestern Islands

The mention of Hokkaido by Japan News seems to hold significant meaning for the author. In recent years, Japan's security discourse has tended to focus too much on the southwestern islands. However, considering Russia's military activities in the Far East, North Korea's ballistic missiles, and surveillance on the Sea of Japan side, there is no room to treat Hokkaido separately. If Valiant Shield expands from Kagoshima to Hokkaido and Hawaii, the Self-Defense Forces will be tested not only in a single theater but also in handling multiple fronts under the same command and communication network.

However, there are constraints that are often overlooked. Even if the storage of Typhon and the deployment of HIMARS enhance deterrence, the burden of explaining to local governments around the bases, ammunition storage, port and road transportation, and troop protection remains on the Japanese side. The longer U.S. long-range firepower exists within Japan, the more difficult political management during peacetime becomes.

In the author's view, the novelty of Valiant Shield 26 does not lie in flashy weapon names. Rather, it is a mundane issue of where to place the equipment after the exercise, who will protect it, and under what political judgment it will be moved again. Deterrence in the Western Pacific has entered a stage where it is tested not by the range of launchers but by how much silence the bases can endure.

Major Information Sources

• U.S. Department of War, Allies Come Together in the Indo-Pacific for Exercise Valiant Shield 26, 22 June 2026.
• U.S. Department of State, Joint Statement on the June 2026 U.S.-Japan Extended Deterrence Dialogue, 9 June 2026.
• USNI News, Japan Announces 2 Major Western Pacific Exercises with U.S., 25 May 2026.
• The Japan News, Valiant Shield U.S.-Led Multilateral Exercise with Japan Self-Defense Force Kicks Off, 23 June 2026.