Defence Policy

One-way attack USVs detonate at waterline of ex-USS Peleliu. Ukraine-style tactics go operational.

Starmer and Jetten sign landmark agreement at NATO Ankara Summit for eight 15,000-tonne Damen Enforcer-class vessels — four per navy. Flight decks optimised for drone warfare. Built in UK shipyards to

The joint Belgian-Dutch replacement Mine Countermeasures programme approaches full stand-off capability demonstration by end 2026. Oostende (M940) delivered, Vlissingen (M840) handed to Netherlands. 1

Saab signs with TKMS to deliver 9LV Combat Systems, Sea Giraffe 4A AESA radar, Sea Giraffe 1X, composite superstructures and passive sensors for four MEKO A-200 DEU frigates. Deliveries 2029–2032. Opt

BAAINBw signs mid-three-digit-million-euro contract with MBDA-Rheinmetall joint venture for high-energy laser weapon system. Tested on frigate Sachsen across 28,000 nautical miles. Over 1,000 shots ag

Saab signs contract with Swedish FMV for 16 Gripen E jets for Ukraine — delivery 2029–2030. Follows donation of 16 Gripen C/Ds arriving 2027. Road-base capable, small-team maintainable, designed for e

Zelensky announces PAC-3 interceptors arriving within days and a US production licence agreed in principle at the NATO Ankara Summit. Poland, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden designated as European technology-transfer hubs. Warsaw says Ukrainian missile production could begin within weeks.

MoU signed at NATO Ankara Summit — first-ever ATACMS production outside the US, at Rheinmetall's Unterlüß facility. JV backed by Washington and Berlin to manufacture and deliver the 300 km ballistic missile to NATO allies. Greece, an ATACMS operator, stands to benefit.

JMSDF commissioned FFM-10 at Kure Naval Base — a $323M multi-mission stealth frigate built by MHI with ~90 crew (vs ~200 conventional), joystick docking, Mk 41 VLS, and future UUV/USV integration. Australia signed for the export variant; New Zealand evaluating.

Italy, Japan and the UK issued the second joint international contract — €5.3B (£4.6B) to the BAE Systems–Leonardo–JAIEC consortium Edgewing — covering advanced concept completion and detailed design through December 2027. With FCAS collapsed, GCAP is the only active 6th-gen manned fighter programme in Europe. Delivery target: 2035.

A Munich-area start-up fields three unmanned platforms: a heavy-lift MEDEVAC quad (Grille), a 350 kg-payload helicopter (Wespe), and a 2,500 km ISTAR fixed-wing (Bussard) — all NATO-interoperable and EASA-certified, demonstrated at Vigorous Warrior 2026.

Defence Minister Häkkänen announced a €108M order for the RBS 70 NG — Saab's laser beam-riding SHORAD immune to EW and IR countermeasures. Range 9 km, Bolide missile at Mach 2+, deploy in 45 seconds. Karelia Brigade leads the fielding; full capability before 2030.

Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen authorised a supplementary buy of Raytheon's 250-lb SDB II — tri-mode seeker (mmW radar + uncooled IIR + semi-active laser), Link 16 datalink, 69 km standoff — for Finland's 64 F-35As under the €8.4B HX programme. Combat-proven in Yemen 2025; the UK, Australia and Norway are also fielding the weapon.

Presented at Eurosatory 2026, the land- and sea-launched Mk2 delivers 1,000+ km precision strike with next-generation anti-jamming, IR terminal guidance and a four-cell mobile launcher ready by 2029 — filling a gap left by the collapse of Germany's Tomahawk procurement.

Britain's new Defence Investment Plan names four uncrewed platform types to underpin the Royal Navy's ‘hybrid’ force and its ‘Atlantic Fleet’ concept — the Type 92 UUV and Type 93 XLUUV for undersea sensing and ASW, and the Type 94 sensing and Type 91 missile platforms for air defence and strike, joined in the 2030s by at least six Common Combat Vessels. The concept runs in three stages — Atlantic Bastion, Shield and Strike — backed by ~£5bn for autonomy, +£1.5bn for Bastion and £26bn for the Devonport, Faslane and Portsmouth bases, alongside a push on readiness and the final Astute-class boat, Achilles.

The Royal Danish Navy has ordered a new class of multi-role vessels — for marine-environmental response, minelaying and sovereignty enforcement. DALO signed the deal on 4 February and announced it on 1 July; the ships will be built by the Danish consortium Orlogsskibe Danmark K/S (OSK Design, Karstensens Skibsværft, Hvide Sande Shipyard). Steel cutting for the first hull began on 10 June in Gdansk, Poland, with operational introduction planned from around the turn of 2029 — as the Baltic quietly rebuilds naval mine warfare.

An analysis by (retired) Rear Admiral Hasan Özyurt — who works at ULAQ Global, a maker of armed unmanned surface vessels — argues that cheap one-way attack drones form a middle tier between air defence and C-UAS that navies address poorly. Firing costly interceptors at ~$20-50k drones drains the defender faster than the attacker; at sea, shore systems detect low-signature drones only within ~10km, leaving minutes or seconds. His fix: unmanned surface vessels pushed 30km forward with AESA radar and low-cost effectors, plus force-level C2. The framework is widely discussed — though readers should weigh the author's commercial interest.

As Trump hints at a new arrangement with Ankara before the NATO summit in Turkey (7-8 July), Rep. Dina Titus is gathering signatures urging the House to block any reinstatement of Turkey to the F-35 while its Russian S-400 and CAATSA sanctions stand. The 2019 ejection, the December 2020 CAATSA penalties and the FY2020 NDAA all remain in force; the congressional tool, a joint resolution of disapproval, is real but hard to make bite.

The head of the F-35 programme, Lt. Gen. Gregory Masiello, confirmed the US Marine Corps accepted at least six jets with no radar installed, because the new AN/APG-85 is years late — first production radars aren't due until about April 2028 at roughly $9m each, and the mount isn't backwards-compatible with the APG-81. He would not count a radarless F-35 as fully mission capable. A GAO report puts the fleet's full-mission-capable rate down from 38% to 25%, amid cooling limits, spares shortages and a $2.1tn lifetime bill. Foreign buyers, including Greece, get the mature APG-81 and aren't affected near-term.

North Korea commissioned the 5,000-ton Choe Hyon at Nampo on 23 June — its largest-ever warship and first ocean-going combatant, lead of four planned guided-missile destroyers. Analysts count up to ~104 missiles across 88 VLS cells plus inclined launchers, a Pantsir-M-type CIWS, a 127mm gun, Type 730-style guns and a new ASW launcher, with four fixed phased-array radar faces. Kim Jong Un called it a ‘new chapter’ and unveiled plans for 10,000-ton ‘strategic’ cruisers and two major warships a year — a blue-water shift built on Russian and Chinese technology.

Fire Point — behind about 60% of Ukraine's strikes inside Russia with its FP-1/FP-2 drones and FP-5 Flamingo — has signed a deal with Germany's Hensoldt to build Freyja, a ballistic-missile interceptor (FP-7.X) aiming to down a missile for ~$700k against ~$3.8M for a Patriot. A European stack with Thales, Leonardo and Kongsberg; first intercept targeted by end-2027. The firm is also under a Ukrainian anti-corruption probe, which it denies.

Thales and Hanwha sign an MoU to integrate South Korea's Chunmoo missiles with the French X-Fire rocket launcher — the CGR080 (80 km), CTM-MR (160 km) and CTM290 ballistic missile (290 km). A fast route to deep-strike mass, after Paris picked MBDA's Thundart at Eurosatory.

The US transfers four wind- and solar-powered Ocean Aero Triton USVs to the Philippine Navy's USV Unit One at Subic Bay. Up to 30 days at sea, surface and underwater, with sonar and acoustic sensors — cheap, persistent awareness for the contested South China Sea.

Poland's Armament Agency signs for Shield AI V-BAT VTOL drones to support Polish Navy operations — ship-launched ISR, 12+ hrs, heavy-fuel, NATO Class I. Proven in Ukraine and GPS-denied seas, a force multiplier for the Baltic. Greece and the Netherlands already operate it.

At Eurosatory 2026, Esh-Tech unveils DroneLight — a burst-firing laser that downs a drone in 1-2 sec and claims 30+ kills a minute. Range ~1 km, ~4 kW, vehicle-mounted, operational September 2026. A cheap-per-shot layer against the swarm.

Navantia launches HMS Almadinah in San Fernando — the sixth Avante 2200 corvette for the Royal Saudi Navy and first of a second three-ship batch (to 2029). On time, on budget, with localisation in the Kingdom and an eye on frigates, minehunters and submarines.

Analysis: from Spain's Hornet to Poland's Piorun, Europe's navies are converging on cheap, modular, layered air defence — beating the swarm on price, not just firepower. What it means for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Naval Group, MESKO and TELESYSTEM sign to fire MESKO's Piorun from the Rampart launcher — a short-range, proximity-fuzed SAM vs aircraft, helicopters, UAVs and winged rockets. An integrated European answer.

75+ km · 1.5 kg · radar-cued autonomous EO/IR · GNSS-denied. First at-sea firing from frigate F-81 Santa María. €1M interceptor vs €35k drone.

F110-GE-129 · 2,000+ NM · Hivemind AI · no runway. First VTOL tests Sept 2026. Greece already operates V-BAT.

Rheinmetall CML (18× FV-014, 100 km range) and KNDS drone container (HX-2 + METIS). Spiderweb doctrine now a product line.

1,000 Toutatis drones a month by 2027 — but this is Renault's third military programme in 18 months. Europe is scaling war production through automotive industry.

Naval Group names its MPLS system Rampart: 1,000 kg payload, four interchangeable modules, rockets, VSHORAD missiles and loitering munitions — for naval and land use.

A German Leopard 2 hull, a French unmanned ASCALON turret, 120 mm gun upgradeable to 140 mm — KNDS's answer to the gap between France's Leclerc XLR and the delayed MGCS.

The former HNLMS Makkum is commissioned under the Maritime Capability Coalition — named after a minesweeper lost in combat in 2022. Montreux keeps it in the UK for now.

Boeing withdraws from the US Navy's UJTS competition, leaving Leonardo–Textron's M-346N and SNC's clean-sheet Freedom Jet as the only finalists for a contract now worth $2.7bn.

Athens secures roughly €800 million in EU loan financing for surveillance, secure comms and counter-drone technology under the €150B SAFE programme.

Dassault demands compensation from Airbus over the €7B MALE drone after France suspends purchases through 2035. All three Franco-German defence flagships now dead or in crisis.

Paris orders the integrated ASTER/MICA VL configuration, marking a doctrinal shift toward layered, high-density threat response.

An in-depth analysis of European defence spending, NATO commitments and the shifting strategic landscape.