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Jul 6
Europe's defense boom has a semiconductor problem
Europe's defense industry is running into a structural bottleneck: the semiconductors needed for modern missiles, drones, radar, communications, and electronic warfare cannot be produced domestically at scale. Even as defense budgets rise across the EU, the industrial base needed to turn spending into capability remains constrained by dependence on foreign microelectronics.

Sharp has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with global satellite operator SES and expanded the agreement into a joint development partnership aimed at commercializing medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite communications and related applications in Japan.

The US Army is expanding drone component production at Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania, shifting the site from a maintenance center into a manufacturing hub for brushless motors and circuit boards. The effort is designed to strengthen US supply chains and reduce reliance on China and other overseas suppliers, according to Defense Daily and Breaking Defense.
Fulltech held the groundbreaking ceremony for phase one of its new Thailand plant on July 5, 2026, with chairman Yuan-Pin Chang saying the project will require about NT$3.1 billion (approx. US$96.8 million) in total investment and that production capacity has already been fully booked by customers. The plant is scheduled to begin mass production in the third quarter of 2027.
Global automotive Tier 1 suppliers are speeding up cross-industry transformation as the car sector's shift puts pressure on long-term growth, and Schaeffler is expanding beyond auto parts into humanoid robots, defense, and aerospace to find fresh momentum.
Sharp is moving deeper into satellite communications as it seeks to extend its networking technologies beyond consumer devices and into industrial infrastructure.
The annual Shangri-La Dialogue, considered the most important defense and security conference in the Asia-Pacific region, was held this year in Singapore at the end of May. For this year's conference, however, China kept a low profile by sending a deputy president from its National Defense University, a move seen as its attempt to minimize the significance of the conference.

Japan is preparing to support a Rakuten-led low-Earth orbit satellite communications project, as the country looks to reduce reliance on foreign satellite networks and build a domestic direct-to-mobile connectivity layer for disasters, remote areas, and future digital infrastructure.

The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) Listing Review Committee approved TMY Technology Inc.'s application to list on the Taiwan Innovation Board (TIB) on June 30. The proposed listing remains subject to final approval by the TWSE board of directors.

Taiwan's legislature moved defense drone proposals to committee review on July 3 after heated debate, advancing plans to fund a domestic autonomous unmanned vehicles program and prompting a near-term boost in activity across the local drone supply chain. The Executive Yuan had approved a draft special act backed by a special budget of NT$210 billion (US$6.6 billion) for procurement of autonomous defense unmanned vehicles, and rival bills from the Kuomintang and the Taiwan People's Party were also sent to committee review.
The Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) announced on June 30 that the wind data product generated by TRITON, Taiwan's first domestically developed weather satellite, has been upgraded to Version 2.1. The update significantly increases the volume of wind observation data and shortens processing time through an expanded ground station network and improvements to the data processing pipeline.

China's private rocket industry is entering a make-or-break decade, as low-Earth orbit satellite demand, reusable launch technology, and STAR Market reforms drive the race to build a "China SpaceX."