Analysis - MGG Geopolitics (Page 3)

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

Jul 3, 2026 — 3 min read

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

Jul 3, 2026 — 3 min read

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

Jul 1, 2026 — 5 min read

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

Jul 1, 2026 — 3 min read

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

Jul 1, 2026 — 3 min read

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

Jun 29, 2026 — 3 min read

China-Russia Bombers Patrol Sea of Japan Again as Joint Missions Become Routine

The 11th joint strategic air patrol flown by China and Russia on June 27, over waters near Japan and South Korea, will read to many in the region as just another entry in a lengthening logbook. That sense of routine is the point. What began in 2019 as a single, attention-grabbing flight of Chinese H-6K and Russian Tu-95MS bombers close to Japanese airspace has settled into a fixture of the regional calendar, and the steady accumulation of these missions has become the message that Moscow and Bei

Analysis Indo-Pacific

MGG Geopolitics

Jun 29, 2026 — 3 min read

Why Japan's Warship Exports Are Reshaping Indo-Pacific Power

When reports emerged in late April that Japan had offered India the design plans for its prized Mogami-class frigate, the significance went well beyond a single contract. According to the South China Morning Post, Tokyo proposed letting India build the ships in its own yards using Japanese materials, with each hull costing about US$500 million and armed with anti-ship missiles and torpedoes. It is also the clearest sign yet of a strategy that is reshaping naval power across the region. Japan is

Analysis Indo-Pacific

MGG Geopolitics

Jun 28, 2026 — 3 min read