Analysis

HMS Prince of Wales in NATO's High North: What Britain's Carrier Mission Achieves

HMS Prince of Wales in NATO's High North: What Britain's Carrier Mission Achieves

British F-35B jets have flown NATO air policing missions from HMS Prince of Wales off Iceland, the first time the alliance has generated such patrols from a European aircraft carrier. The deployment places the Royal Navy flagship at the centre of collective defence in the High North. The Ministry of Defence announced the mission on 6 July, as Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis visited the carrier alongside Icelandic Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir. Operating under NATO command as part
Analysis Europe
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
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
Analysis Indo-Pacific
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
Analysis Indo-Pacific
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
Analysis Indo-Pacific
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
Analysis Indo-Pacific
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
US Builds Up Australia as Forward Base to Counter China

US Builds Up Australia as Forward Base to Counter China

The US military is expanding its footprint across Australia at a pace not seen in decades, building the country into a forward base for a possible conflict with China. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth set out the scope at annual AUSMIN talks with Australian ministers in Washington in December. He pointed to upgraded airbases in Queensland and the Northern Territory for more American bomber rotations, and to expanded logistics in Darwin so more Marines could rotate through and keep their MV-22 O
Analysis Indo-Pacific
MGG Geopolitics

MGG Geopolitics
China Surrounds Scarborough Shoal With Patrols as Coast Guard Presence Hits Record

China Surrounds Scarborough Shoal With Patrols as Coast Guard Presence Hits Record

China's military and coast guard staged combat-readiness patrols around Scarborough Shoal on 30 June, days after Philippine and United States forces drilled in nearby waters, in the latest turn of a confrontation cycle that has become routine at one of Asia's most contested reefs. The People's Liberation Army's Southern Theatre Command said its naval and air forces had patrolled the territorial waters and airspace around the shoal, according to Reuters. The China Coast Guard said separately tha
Analysis Indo-Pacific
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