Iron Command Advisory
Indo-Pacific geopolitical risk, read at intelligence-grade.
Fractional and one-off geopolitical risk advisory for funds, family offices, insurers, and corporates carrying Indo-Pacific exposure. An intelligence team on call, without the headcount. Led by a former British Army intelligence analyst.
Tradecraft applied at
Home Office
Ministry of Defence
British Army
What Iron Command does
Three ways to put an intelligence analyst on your problem
Headline retainer
Fractional Geopolitical Advisor
An on-call intelligence seat for organisations too small for an in-house intelligence team but too exposed to ignore the risk. A continuous Indo-Pacific read rather than one engagement at a time. Capped at a small number of concurrent seats.
- — Monthly strategy call, written summary
- — Ad-hoc questions between calls (email / Signal)
- — Risk and investment committee attendance
- — First-call status for urgent reads
Engagement
Ongoing retainer, six-month minimum
Scope and fee agreed on the first call, against your exposure and the depth of cover you need.
Current availability
2 of 5 seats open
One-off
Scoped geopolitical risk reads
A single decision, assessed end to end. Market entry, counterparty exposure, escalation scenario, or a board question that needs an intelligence answer rather than a news summary.
Start an enquiry →Defence track
Capability & threat assessment
For ministries, primes, programme offices, and defence-tech investors. Capability and threat analysis, red team, wargame design.
See defence services →READ Audit
Not sure you need an analyst on call?
Five minutes, eight questions. See where your current Indo-Pacific read is tight and where it's exposed.
Coming September 2026
First Island Brittleness (FIB) — our quarterly Indo-Pacific decay-rate index.
Selected work
The methodology, in public
Every advisory engagement runs the same tradecraft you can read here. These are worked examples, not the deliverables.
AssessmentVirginia 8.3/10 vs Yasen 6.4/10Virginia-class vs Yasen-class: A Strategic Comparative Assessment
Professional intelligence assessment comparing US Virginia-class and Russian Yasen-class nuclear attack submarines across design philosophy, capabilities, and strategic impact.
AssessmentF-35A 51/60 vs Su-57 31/60F-35A vs Su-57: A Comparative Assessment of Fifth-Generation Air Superiority
Military intelligence assessment comparing the F-35A Lightning II to Russia's Su-57 Felon. Stealth, sensors, combat record, and production — which fifth-gen fighter wins?
AssessmentAI in Defence — What's Real, What's Marketing
An operator's read of the UK and NATO defence-AI moment. Where the capability is real, where the vendor narrative isn't, and what institutional investors and defence-tech founders should actually test.
Ben Brand
Founder & Lead Analyst
Former British Army intelligence analyst. Thirteen years across intelligence analysis and cyber operations — nine years of British Army intelligence analysis and four-plus years of cyber consultancy, including a current engagement inside UK government.
Every Iron Command assessment is authored or directed by Ben personally.
Methodology
SITREP and READ — two frameworks, one practice
SITREP is the operator-side method behind every Iron Command assessment. Source, Identify, Timeline, Risk, Evaluate, Present. READ is the buyer-side method for thinking like an intelligence analyst about capability and risk claims. Reality, Evidence, Assumptions, Decision. Both run inside every advisory engagement.
Read the full methodology →Sponsorship and brand partnerships · partnerships · Journalist enquiries · press kit