Military spending in the Asia-Pacific rose at the fastest pace for 16 years in 2025 as US allies felt “growing uncertainty” over whether Washington would honour its security commitments, according to a new report. Total global spending reached US$2.89 trillion, an increase of 2.9 per cent from 2024, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think tank said in its annual report on military expenditure published Monday. That marked the 11th consecutive year of increases and...
Japan is planning to replace some of its attack helicopters with multipurpose drones, prompting warnings from some Chinese media outlets and analysts that this could be seen as a hostile move. The country’s defence budget, which took effect on April 7 for this financial year, allocates 11.1 billion yen (US$70 million) for the procurement of five wide-area unmanned aerial vehicles. A further 280 billion yen was allocated for research and development into “unmanned asset defence...