Analysis


Papua New Guinea Opens Allied Military Drill Days After Australia Defence Pact Takes Effect

Papua New Guinea Opens Allied Military Drill Days After Australia Defence Pact Takes Effect

Papua New Guinea has formally opened a multinational military exercise with forces from Australia, the United States and New Zealand, days after a new mutual-defence treaty elevated Port Moresby and Canberra to allies committed to integrating their armed forces more closely. Soldiers from the Papua New Guinea Defence Force and US Army stood together at Murray Barracks in Port Moresby on 13 July for the opening of Tamiok Strike 26. The exercise, led by the PNGDF and US Army Pacific, runs across


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

How US Missile Deployments Near Taiwan Are Becoming a Fixture in the Philippines

How US Missile Deployments Near Taiwan Are Becoming a Fixture in the Philippines

A chain of Philippine islands stretching south from Taiwan is becoming a recurring operating ground for American and allied missile forces, as temporary exercises evolve into longer rotations designed to defend strategic waters from China. The Hawaii-based 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment spent roughly three months in the Philippines this year, moving anti-ship launchers and air-defence systems through the country during the Balikatan and KAMANDAG exercises. In the northernmost Batanes and Babuyan


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

US Deepens Guam Submarine Support Amid China Missile Threat

US Deepens Guam Submarine Support Amid China Missile Threat

The US Navy is building Guam into a more capable submarine hub, able to keep its boats ready closer to potential flashpoints in Asia. The arrival of USS Tucson this month—an outwardly routine exchange of one vessel for another—highlights the supporting network behind that effort. USS Tucson, a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine commissioned in 1995, reached its new home port at Naval Base Guam in July. Navy photographs and captions show the boat arriving on 10 July, although the


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Canada’s TKMS Submarine Bet Comes With Strategic Costs

Canada’s TKMS Submarine Bet Comes With Strategic Costs

Canada has chosen a highly capable German submarine and a partnership that fits comfortably within its established NATO role. It has also passed up a rarer opportunity to connect its Arctic defence requirements with its ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on 6 July that TKMS had been selected as the preferred supplier for as many as 12 new submarines, beating South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean in the largest defence procurement Canada has attempted. The German shipbuild


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

News


UK Commits £26 Billion to Naval Bases, Including £15.1 Billion for Faslane

UK Commits £26 Billion to Naval Bases, Including £15.1 Billion for Faslane

Britain will invest approximately £26 billion over the next decade to modernise the Royal Navy’s three main bases, including £15.1 billion for HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane, in what the Ministry of Defence calls the largest naval infrastructure programme since the end of the Cold War. Defence Minister Luke Pollard confirmed the funding on Tuesday during a visit to HMNB Clyde. The government forecasts investment of £7.1 billion at Devonport in Plymouth and £3.9 billion at Portsmouth on the Sole


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Germany Funds 50,000 AI-Guided Drones Built to Hunt Through Russian Jamming

Germany Funds 50,000 AI-Guided Drones Built to Hunt Through Russian Jamming

Germany is financing 50,000 Ukrainian attack drones equipped with US-designed guidance software built to track moving targets after their connection to a human operator is disrupted, in one of the largest disclosed Western drone orders for Kyiv. The approximately €90 million programme combines Shrike first-person-view drones made by Ukrainian manufacturer SkyFall with Auterion Strike kits from US-headquartered defence technology company Auterion, according to Reuters. Deliveries have begun and


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

UK Places First Contracts in European Race for Cheap Drone Defences

UK Places First Contracts in European Race for Cheap Drone Defences

Britain has awarded £3.16 million ($4.2 million) to three companies developing low-cost weapons to intercept drones, becoming the first of five European partners to place national contracts under a joint air-defence initiative. The relatively modest awards address one of the most pressing problems exposed by recent conflicts: inexpensive drones can be produced and launched faster than conventional air-defence missiles can be built or replenished. Russia launched an average of 208 Shahed-type d


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Australia Accelerates Missile Shield After Live-Fire Success at Woomera
Photo courtesy of the Australian Department of Defence

Australia Accelerates Missile Shield After Live-Fire Success at Woomera

Australia and the United States shot down a cruise missile target in a first-of-type live-fire test of a prototype ground-based air defence system, as Canberra accelerates work on a missile shield to guard against growing threats in the Indo-Pacific. The Australian Defence Force fired a Standard Missile-2 at an airborne target last month at the Woomera range in South Australia, during Exercise Taipan Strike 26, the government said on Thursday. The prototype paired an Australian radar with a Uni


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Europe

Defence and security across Europe and NATO — procurement, posture and alliance politics.


UK Commits £26 Billion to Naval Bases, Including £15.1 Billion for Faslane

UK Commits £26 Billion to Naval Bases, Including £15.1 Billion for Faslane

Britain will invest approximately £26 billion over the next decade to modernise the Royal Navy’s three main bases, including £15.1 billion for HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane, in what the Ministry of Defence calls the largest naval infrastructure programme since the end of the Cold War. Defence Minister Luke Pollard confirmed the funding on Tuesday during a visit to HMNB Clyde. The government forecasts investment of £7.1 billion at Devonport in Plymouth and £3.9 billion at Portsmouth on the Sole


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Germany Funds 50,000 AI-Guided Drones Built to Hunt Through Russian Jamming

Germany Funds 50,000 AI-Guided Drones Built to Hunt Through Russian Jamming

Germany is financing 50,000 Ukrainian attack drones equipped with US-designed guidance software built to track moving targets after their connection to a human operator is disrupted, in one of the largest disclosed Western drone orders for Kyiv. The approximately €90 million programme combines Shrike first-person-view drones made by Ukrainian manufacturer SkyFall with Auterion Strike kits from US-headquartered defence technology company Auterion, according to Reuters. Deliveries have begun and


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

UK Places First Contracts in European Race for Cheap Drone Defences

UK Places First Contracts in European Race for Cheap Drone Defences

Britain has awarded £3.16 million ($4.2 million) to three companies developing low-cost weapons to intercept drones, becoming the first of five European partners to place national contracts under a joint air-defence initiative. The relatively modest awards address one of the most pressing problems exposed by recent conflicts: inexpensive drones can be produced and launched faster than conventional air-defence missiles can be built or replenished. Russia launched an average of 208 Shahed-type d


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Belgium's €3.1 Billion Skyranger Deal Puts Rheinmetall at the Centre of Europe's Air Defence

Belgium's €3.1 Billion Skyranger Deal Puts Rheinmetall at the Centre of Europe's Air Defence

Belgium confirmed a €3.1 billion air-defence package at the NATO summit in Ankara on 8 July, built around 20 Rheinmetall Skyranger short-range systems. The deal also takes in 10 NASAMS launchers and 14 Ground Master 200 radars, bought through existing Dutch framework contracts to speed delivery. Defence minister Theo Francken set out the plan as the country's first serious rebuild of a mobile air-defence layer it has largely gone without since the early 2010s. The systems are meant to cover cri


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

United States

US defence policy, procurement and military posture at home and abroad.


How US Missile Deployments Near Taiwan Are Becoming a Fixture in the Philippines

How US Missile Deployments Near Taiwan Are Becoming a Fixture in the Philippines

A chain of Philippine islands stretching south from Taiwan is becoming a recurring operating ground for American and allied missile forces, as temporary exercises evolve into longer rotations designed to defend strategic waters from China. The Hawaii-based 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment spent roughly three months in the Philippines this year, moving anti-ship launchers and air-defence systems through the country during the Balikatan and KAMANDAG exercises. In the northernmost Batanes and Babuyan


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

US Deepens Guam Submarine Support Amid China Missile Threat

US Deepens Guam Submarine Support Amid China Missile Threat

The US Navy is building Guam into a more capable submarine hub, able to keep its boats ready closer to potential flashpoints in Asia. The arrival of USS Tucson this month—an outwardly routine exchange of one vessel for another—highlights the supporting network behind that effort. USS Tucson, a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine commissioned in 1995, reached its new home port at Naval Base Guam in July. Navy photographs and captions show the boat arriving on 10 July, although the


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Lockheed Tests Guam Missile-Defence Battle Manager at Valiant Shield

Lockheed Tests Guam Missile-Defence Battle Manager at Valiant Shield

Lockheed Martin tested a new command-and-control system for Guam’s missile defence during Valiant Shield 2026, demonstrating software designed to link sensors, interceptors and battle-management systems across one of the most important US military hubs in the Western Pacific. The company said the demonstration connected live and simulated data from several air and missile-defence systems taking part in the exercise, including Command, Control, Battle Management and Communications, known as C2BM


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

US Navy Tests UUVs and Harpoon Missile Strikes at RIMPAC 2026

US Navy Tests UUVs and Harpoon Missile Strikes at RIMPAC 2026

The US Navy is using RIMPAC 2026 to test how unmanned underwater drones can support submarine targeting and long-range anti-ship fires, a pairing it says is central to holding its edge under the Pacific as China’s own submarine fleet keeps growing. Commander, Submarine Force, US Pacific Fleet, known as COMSUBPAC, said this year’s exercise highlights two capabilities: unmanned undersea vehicles that simulate autonomous operations in contested waters and provide targeting data, and submarines sch


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Indo-Pacific


China's Submarine Missile Test in the Pacific: Why It Matters

China's Submarine Missile Test in the Pacific: Why It Matters

China test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile into the South Pacific on Monday, dropping a dummy warhead inside the South Pacific's nuclear-free zone within hours of Australia and Fiji signing a mutual defence pact. The People's Liberation Army Navy described the launch as routine annual training that complied with international law and was aimed at no particular country. State media reported the missile struck its designated target in the open ocean after a launch at 12:01pm local ti


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Australia-India Uranium Deal Would Test the Quad's New Energy Agenda

Australia-India Uranium Deal Would Test the Quad's New Energy Agenda

India is pushing to convert a decade-old nuclear agreement that has barely been used into a working uranium trade when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Australia this week. Should a commercial supply deal follow, it would offer one of the first hard tests of whether the energy-security agenda the Quad declared in May can translate into trusted supply chains in a sensitive sector. Modi is due in Melbourne for the third India-Australia Annual Summit, part of a three-nation tour that also take


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Why the US Marines Are Betting on Israel's Iron Dome to Survive a Pacific War

Why the US Marines Are Betting on Israel's Iron Dome to Survive a Pacific War

The US Marine Corps has moved an Iron Dome-derived air-defence system into the Western Pacific, closing a gap in its own Pacific war plan that had left forward Marines without medium-range protection for the first time in a generation. The service announced late last month that III Marine Expeditionary Force, its only permanently forward-deployed MEF, had integrated the Medium-Range Intercept Capability, known as MRIC. Marines exercised the system on Guam during Valiant Shield 2026, the multina


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Japan Puts Itself at the Centre of a New Indo-Pacific Order With India Pact

Japan Puts Itself at the Centre of a New Indo-Pacific Order With India Pact

India and Japan closed their annual summit in New Delhi on Thursday with a run of agreements that pushed their partnership deeper into defence and energy than at any point in two decades of formal ties. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi welcomed agreement in principle on what would become the first defence co-development project between the two countries. They also adopted a joint declaration on economic security and pointed to private-sector investment de


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Technology

Emerging defence technology — AI, autonomy, cyber and next-generation systems.


Germany Funds 50,000 AI-Guided Drones Built to Hunt Through Russian Jamming

Germany Funds 50,000 AI-Guided Drones Built to Hunt Through Russian Jamming

Germany is financing 50,000 Ukrainian attack drones equipped with US-designed guidance software built to track moving targets after their connection to a human operator is disrupted, in one of the largest disclosed Western drone orders for Kyiv. The approximately €90 million programme combines Shrike first-person-view drones made by Ukrainian manufacturer SkyFall with Auterion Strike kits from US-headquartered defence technology company Auterion, according to Reuters. Deliveries have begun and


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

UK Places First Contracts in European Race for Cheap Drone Defences

UK Places First Contracts in European Race for Cheap Drone Defences

Britain has awarded £3.16 million ($4.2 million) to three companies developing low-cost weapons to intercept drones, becoming the first of five European partners to place national contracts under a joint air-defence initiative. The relatively modest awards address one of the most pressing problems exposed by recent conflicts: inexpensive drones can be produced and launched faster than conventional air-defence missiles can be built or replenished. Russia launched an average of 208 Shahed-type d


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Australia Accelerates Missile Shield After Live-Fire Success at Woomera
Photo courtesy of the Australian Department of Defence

Australia Accelerates Missile Shield After Live-Fire Success at Woomera

Australia and the United States shot down a cruise missile target in a first-of-type live-fire test of a prototype ground-based air defence system, as Canberra accelerates work on a missile shield to guard against growing threats in the Indo-Pacific. The Australian Defence Force fired a Standard Missile-2 at an airborne target last month at the Woomera range in South Australia, during Exercise Taipan Strike 26, the government said on Thursday. The prototype paired an Australian radar with a Uni


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Belgium's €3.1 Billion Skyranger Deal Puts Rheinmetall at the Centre of Europe's Air Defence

Belgium's €3.1 Billion Skyranger Deal Puts Rheinmetall at the Centre of Europe's Air Defence

Belgium confirmed a €3.1 billion air-defence package at the NATO summit in Ankara on 8 July, built around 20 Rheinmetall Skyranger short-range systems. The deal also takes in 10 NASAMS launchers and 14 Ground Master 200 radars, bought through existing Dutch framework contracts to speed delivery. Defence minister Theo Francken set out the plan as the country's first serious rebuild of a mobile air-defence layer it has largely gone without since the early 2010s. The systems are meant to cover cri


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Defence Exports

Arms sales, export deals and the global defence trade.


Germany Funds 50,000 AI-Guided Drones Built to Hunt Through Russian Jamming

Germany Funds 50,000 AI-Guided Drones Built to Hunt Through Russian Jamming

Germany is financing 50,000 Ukrainian attack drones equipped with US-designed guidance software built to track moving targets after their connection to a human operator is disrupted, in one of the largest disclosed Western drone orders for Kyiv. The approximately €90 million programme combines Shrike first-person-view drones made by Ukrainian manufacturer SkyFall with Auterion Strike kits from US-headquartered defence technology company Auterion, according to Reuters. Deliveries have begun and


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Canada’s TKMS Submarine Bet Comes With Strategic Costs

Canada’s TKMS Submarine Bet Comes With Strategic Costs

Canada has chosen a highly capable German submarine and a partnership that fits comfortably within its established NATO role. It has also passed up a rarer opportunity to connect its Arctic defence requirements with its ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on 6 July that TKMS had been selected as the preferred supplier for as many as 12 new submarines, beating South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean in the largest defence procurement Canada has attempted. The German shipbuild


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Belgium's €3.1 Billion Skyranger Deal Puts Rheinmetall at the Centre of Europe's Air Defence

Belgium's €3.1 Billion Skyranger Deal Puts Rheinmetall at the Centre of Europe's Air Defence

Belgium confirmed a €3.1 billion air-defence package at the NATO summit in Ankara on 8 July, built around 20 Rheinmetall Skyranger short-range systems. The deal also takes in 10 NASAMS launchers and 14 Ground Master 200 radars, bought through existing Dutch framework contracts to speed delivery. Defence minister Theo Francken set out the plan as the country's first serious rebuild of a mobile air-defence layer it has largely gone without since the early 2010s. The systems are meant to cover cri


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Four NATO States Order Up to Five MQ-4C Triton Surveillance Drones

Four NATO States Order Up to Five MQ-4C Triton Surveillance Drones

Denmark, Finland, Germany and Norway agreed to acquire up to five Northrop Grumman Corp. MQ-4C Triton surveillance aircraft for NATO, signing a letter of intent on Tuesday at the alliance's annual summit in Ankara. The high-altitude drones would join NATO's alliance-owned intelligence force and watch the seas from the Mediterranean to the Arctic, giving commanders a persistent maritime picture as Russian naval and submarine activity rises across the North Atlantic. Northrop would build the airc


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Aerospace

Air power, combat aircraft, drones and missiles.


Four NATO States Order Up to Five MQ-4C Triton Surveillance Drones

Four NATO States Order Up to Five MQ-4C Triton Surveillance Drones

Denmark, Finland, Germany and Norway agreed to acquire up to five Northrop Grumman Corp. MQ-4C Triton surveillance aircraft for NATO, signing a letter of intent on Tuesday at the alliance's annual summit in Ankara. The high-altitude drones would join NATO's alliance-owned intelligence force and watch the seas from the Mediterranean to the Arctic, giving commanders a persistent maritime picture as Russian naval and submarine activity rises across the North Atlantic. Northrop would build the airc


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Denmark’s P-8 Buy Shows Boeing Is Winning Europe’s Submarine-Hunting North

Denmark’s P-8 Buy Shows Boeing Is Winning Europe’s Submarine-Hunting North

Denmark is buying Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, joining a northern group of NATO allies that are standardising around the same American submarine-hunting jet as Russia’s undersea threat returns to the centre of European defence planning. Copenhagen said on Tuesday it would acquire two P-8As from Boeing to strengthen surveillance around Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Danish waters. The decision follows a US State Department approval in December for a possible sale of up to thr


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


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


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MGG Geopolitics

Land Systems

Armies, armoured vehicles, artillery and ground-based air defence.


Belgium's €3.1 Billion Skyranger Deal Puts Rheinmetall at the Centre of Europe's Air Defence

Belgium's €3.1 Billion Skyranger Deal Puts Rheinmetall at the Centre of Europe's Air Defence

Belgium confirmed a €3.1 billion air-defence package at the NATO summit in Ankara on 8 July, built around 20 Rheinmetall Skyranger short-range systems. The deal also takes in 10 NASAMS launchers and 14 Ground Master 200 radars, bought through existing Dutch framework contracts to speed delivery. Defence minister Theo Francken set out the plan as the country's first serious rebuild of a mobile air-defence layer it has largely gone without since the early 2010s. The systems are meant to cover cri


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Germany Expands Its Arrow 3 Shield as Europe's Air Defence Autonomy Slips

Germany Expands Its Arrow 3 Shield as Europe's Air Defence Autonomy Slips

Germany has confirmed plans for a second site for its Arrow 3 missile shield (July 1), the interceptor that will guard its cities against ballistic attack from beyond the atmosphere. The system is Israeli-led and needed American approval to be sold. It is not European, and that is the dilemma of Europe's rearmament. The continent's most ambitious territorial missile defence, fielded by its wealthiest power, is not built in Europe. Germany dreams, as the rest of the continent does, of arming it


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Why the US Marines Are Betting on Israel's Iron Dome to Survive a Pacific War

Why the US Marines Are Betting on Israel's Iron Dome to Survive a Pacific War

The US Marine Corps has moved an Iron Dome-derived air-defence system into the Western Pacific, closing a gap in its own Pacific war plan that had left forward Marines without medium-range protection for the first time in a generation. The service announced late last month that III Marine Expeditionary Force, its only permanently forward-deployed MEF, had integrated the Medium-Range Intercept Capability, known as MRIC. Marines exercised the system on Guam during Valiant Shield 2026, the multina


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


MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics

Space

Military space — satellites, launch and counter-space capabilities.

1 post

Middle East & Africa

Security, conflict and defence developments across the Middle East and Africa.

1 post

Video

1 post