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
Vanuatu Signed Australia's Pact While Keeping China's Door Open

Vanuatu Signed Australia's Pact While Keeping China's Door Open

Australia has the Pacific security pact it wanted with Vanuatu. What it does not have is the veto it asked for. When Anthony Albanese and his Vanuatu counterpart, Jotham Napat, signed the Nakamal Agreement in Canberra on Monday, both leaders turned to the language of partnership and triumph. The treaty bars foreign military bases from the archipelago and keeps Australia as Vanuatu's primary policing partner. Canberra has also committed to long-term development funding, a figure first set at A$5
Analysis Indo-Pacific
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
UK Adds £15 Billion to Defence Budget, Still Lags NATO Allies

UK Adds £15 Billion to Defence Budget, Still Lags NATO Allies

The UK pledged an additional £15 billion for its armed forces and lifted planned defence spending to almost £300 billion over four years, in a package delivered by Prime Minister Keir Starmer that fell short of the increase military chiefs had demanded and left Britain trailing its main NATO allies. The Defence Investment Plan, published on Tuesday after a delay of more than a year, will raise annual defence spending from £54 billion to almost £80 billion by 2029, taking it to 2.7% of economic
News Europe
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MGG Geopolitics
US Reveals Its Stealth Bomber Can Sink Ships in Warning to China

US Reveals Its Stealth Bomber Can Sink Ships in Warning to China

The US Air Force has disclosed for the first time that its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber can launch the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, revealing a penetrating maritime-strike capability designed to hold China's expanding navy at risk. Pacific Air Forces announced on Monday, 29 June, that it had conducted a live-fire sinking exercise north of the Mariana Islands in which a B-2 fired the Lockheed Martin AGM-158C LRASM at a surface target. The drill formed part of Exercise Valiant Shield 2026, with the
News Indo-Pacific
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
US-Italy Military Ties Deepen Even as the Trump-Meloni Feud Sours the Alliance

US-Italy Military Ties Deepen Even as the Trump-Meloni Feud Sours the Alliance

When President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrive in Ankara next week for the NATO summit on 7-8 July, it will be the first time they have shared a room since their relationship dissolved into public insult. The optics will be studied closely. Yet the more revealing story runs beneath the diplomacy: the military relationship between Washington and Rome has rarely been deeper, and much of its recent growth materialised just before the politics fell apart. The quarrel has been
Analysis Europe
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics