MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Rolls-Royce Breaks Ground on Derby Reactor Site to Power AUKUS Submarines

Rolls-Royce Breaks Ground on Derby Reactor Site to Power AUKUS Submarines

Rolls-Royce Submarines broke ground on Friday on a new manufacturing facility in Derby that will more than double the size of its reactor site, expanding capacity to build nuclear propulsion units for the Royal Navy and Australia's future attack submarines under the AUKUS pact. The work at the Raynesway site will add more than 100,000 square metres of manufacturing and office space and create 1,170 skilled jobs, the company said. It forms part of a plan first announced in June 2023 to double th
News Europe
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
Royal Navy Launches Combat-Proven Nyan Strike Drone From Warship for First Time
Photo courtesy of BAE Systems

Royal Navy Launches Combat-Proven Nyan Strike Drone From Warship for First Time

The Royal Navy and British Army have launched a domestically built strike drone from a warship at sea for the first time, a step towards a fleet that pairs crewed vessels with cheap uncrewed weapons. The trial saw the Nyan One-Way Effector, a small attack drone made by BAE Systems subsidiary Callen-Lenz, launched from the experimentation ship XV Patrick Blackett off the south coast of England last month. It formed part of Exercise Neptune Reach under Project Vantage, a Royal Navy programme set
Analysis Europe
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
Why Europe Is Turning to Ukraine for Missile Production

Why Europe Is Turning to Ukraine for Missile Production

Ukraine and France are negotiating a licence that would allow Kyiv to build SCALP cruise missiles on its own soil, the clearest sign yet that European missile production is moving toward the country those weapons were recently built to supply. Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov confirmed the talks on 29 June, saying there had been steady progress on intellectual property and the mechanics of standing up a production line, while cautioning that no deal was final. The negotiations followed a meeti
Analysis Europe
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
Israel's SPYDER Keeps Winning Europe's Air-Defence Race
Photo courtesy of RAFAEL

Israel's SPYDER Keeps Winning Europe's Air-Defence Race

Romania's agreement to buy Israel's SPYDER air-defence system in a framework worth more than €2 billion, signed in late June, is the largest export contract in the history of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the second-largest deal ever recorded by Israel's defence industry. It confirms that Israeli air defence has secured a durable place in the European market, and it points to the quality that increasingly sets SPYDER apart from its competitors. The system can be sold without American permi
Analysis Europe
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
US Weapons Take More Than 12 Years to Field Despite Pentagon Speed Push

US Weapons Take More Than 12 Years to Field Despite Pentagon Speed Push

The Pentagon is taking longer than ever to put its most expensive weapons into service, with the average time to field a new capability now exceeding 12 years, according to a congressional watchdog report that casts doubt on repeated pledges to speed up delivery. The US Government Accountability Office, in its 24th annual assessment of major weapons programmes published on 2 July, examined 104 of the Department of War's costliest efforts, a portfolio the department plans to spend more than $2.4
News United States
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
New Pentagon Drone ‘Czar’ to Close Gap With US Rivals

New Pentagon Drone ‘Czar’ to Close Gap With US Rivals

The United States has consolidated oversight of almost all of its military drone and autonomous-systems programmes under a single new office, as the Pentagon races to close a fielding gap with rivals it now openly concedes are producing unmanned weapons at far greater speed. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum, dated 29 June and released on Wednesday, establishing the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems, known as the DRPM-UxS. The office will report directly
News United States
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
America's F-15EX Bet at Kadena: More Firepower, Same Missile Problem

America's F-15EX Bet at Kadena: More Firepower, Same Missile Problem

The US Air Force has begun rehearsing the return of permanent fighter power to Kadena Air Base, flying an F-15EX Eagle II into Okinawa on 29 June alongside two F-15E Strike Eagles. Kadena, the closest major American air base to Taiwan, has spent nearly four years without a resident fighter squadron. The F-15EX is meant to end that gap. Thirty-six of the new Eagle IIs are due to replace the F-15C/Ds that guarded the base for more than four decades before their withdrawal began in late 2022. For
Analysis Indo-Pacific
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
US Marines Use Civilian Ferries to Haul China-Deterrent Missiles Near Taiwan
NMESIS

US Marines Use Civilian Ferries to Haul China-Deterrent Missiles Near Taiwan

US Marines moved land-based anti-ship missile launchers across islands near Taiwan aboard contracted Philippine commercial ferries this month, a workaround that underscores how far Washington's plan to counter China at sea has run ahead of the ships built to carry it. During the KAMANDAG exercise, the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment loaded its Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, known as NMESIS, and accompanying air defence vehicles onto civilian roll-on, roll-off vessels to reach
Analysis Indo-Pacific
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics