Author: Defenceline Webdesk

English (Original) Spanish – Español French – Français German – Deutsch Arabic – العربية Chinese – 中文 Japanese – 日本語 Russian – Русский Portuguese – Português Italian – Italiano Korean – 한국어 Dutch – Nederlands Turkish – Türkçe Polish – Polski Hindi – हिन्दी 🤖 Hi! I’m here to help you understand this article. Ask me anything about the content! Send The International Monetary Fund has called on Britain, the United States and other advanced economies to rein in debt as the Middle East energy shock adds to inflationary pressures and pushes up government borrowing costs. Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s…

The Army’s decision to walk away from another Bradley upgrade wasn’t about firepower. It was about a platform that had reached the limits of its own architecture after four decades of service, and a requirement that anything built to replace it needed enough margin, in power, weight, and computing, to serve for 30 years or more without the same problem recurring. American Rheinmetall’s answer is the Lynx XM30, and the case for it rests on two questions: does the vehicle actually solve the problem the Army identified, and is the team behind it equipped to deliver on that solution? Jim…

The huge Chinese market and its BRI infrastructure investments remain highly attractive to ASEAN, China’s recession notwithstanding. Chinese manufacturing investment is also expanding, reinforcing ASEAN’s position as a key part of global production hubs and supply chains. This growth model carries inherent risks, however. Dependence on China for key components and intermediate goods is raising American suspicions that ASEAN may be a hub for Chinese goods being rerouted to third-country markets. Beyond that, if the model hardens into simple assembly of Chinese-origin inputs for export to third countries, it will limit the added value and economic impact generated within the…

English (Original) Spanish – Español French – Français German – Deutsch Arabic – العربية Chinese – 中文 Japanese – 日本語 Russian – Русский Portuguese – Português Italian – Italiano Korean – 한국어 Dutch – Nederlands Turkish – Türkçe Polish – Polski Hindi – हिन्दी 🤖 Hi! I’m here to help you understand this article. Ask me anything about the content! Send Britain’s Chagos deal has been put on hold after Donald Trump refused to support the plan, describing it as “terrible”. Ministers have admitted the controversial and politically sensitive agreement over the strategically important islands cannot go ahead without American…

Much of the attention on European air programs has focused on sixth-generation manned fighters, but there is an increasing focus on unmanned systems, both of the larger CCA variety and the smaller quadcopter revolution playing out in Ukraine. So with one sixth-gen fighter program dead, is the future trending towards drones? For part three of our European Airpower roundtable, Breaking Defense Editor-in-Chief Aaron Mehta is joined Breaking Defense Europe co-editors Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo, along with noted aviation expert Douglas Barrie of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Keep an eye out for future episodes by going to Breaking…

On the night of July 26, a Hindu procession was on its way back after collecting holy water from the Koshi River. The procession being taken out at Kaptanganj of Sunsari district in eastern Nepal was accompanied by loud music, to which some local Muslims objected. A scuffle broke out. Police got involved. Hindu-Muslim tensions soon spread across Nepal’s Tarai-Madhesh belt, the east-west strip of land abutting India. In ensuing clashes between protesters and the police, four people died while curfews disrupted life across the region.     Such incidents follow a recognizable pattern. One newspaper investigation identified 17 Hindu-Muslim documented clashes…

A Challenger 3 MBT mockup at DVD 2026. Credit: Author MoD is still weighing what, if anything, replaces Challenger 3 in the 2040s Challenger 3 upgrades are set, but schedule delays put the 2027 target in doubt Only 148 tanks will be bought; any successor is likely via a US/European programme The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said that it continues to “consider” what capability should replace the incoming Challenger 3 main battle tank (MBT), as questions regarding the programme and any future successor continue to mount. The Challenger 3 is intended to replace the in-service Challenger 2 MBT…

On September 23 and 24, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet will preside over an international conference on combating online scams in Phnom Penh that is co-sponsored by Interpol, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, and China’s Lancang Mekong Cooperation mechanism. In the run-up to the conference, Cambodian leaders and state media have been unusually candid that its purpose is to help “restore the country’s international reputation.” The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has spent years denying or minimizing a massive criminal economy operating in plain sight – and repressing those journalists and human rights groups that sought to expose…

Filipina journalist Eunice Barbara Novio. (Photo supplied) Eunice Barbara Novio is a Thailand-based journalist and an English lecturer at Vongchavalitkul University who has has written extensively on human trafficking in Southeast Asia, particularly focusing on Filipino victims trafficked to Myanmar. A veteran writer for Inquirer.net, she has reported about how trafficking networks lure Filipinos with false job offers, only to exploit them in scam hubs or forced labor situations. Novio has also helped victims of organized crime escape from their ordeal, particularly from compounds operating inside Myanmar and close to the Thai border. She told The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt that…

The Maldives is in the grip of a severe foreign-exchange crisis centered on a shortage of U.S. dollars. This has been a persistent challenge for the country, especially since it is heavily dependent on imports for basic goods, from food and fuel to medicine and construction materials. At the heart of the shortage is a debt burden accumulated across successive governments, with $1.7 billion in external debt service falling due in 2026 alone, placing enormous pressure on the foreign-currency reserves needed by the wider economy. President Mohamed Muizzu’s administration argues, with some justification, that much of this burden predates his…