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
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
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