Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shakes hands with Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on May 4, 2026. (Getty Images)
A Philippine Air Force Black Hawk helicopter lands on June 29, 2023, on Mavulis Island, which is the Philippines’ northernmost island and is roughly 88 miles from Taiwan. (Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
A production line of the Glide, a high-altitude glider that delivers munitions across thousands of miles, is seen at the defense tech startup Mach Industries in Huntington Beach, California, on September 11, 2025. (Getty Images)
Trailers with launchers for guided missiles of a German Patriot air defense system stand on a snow-covered field in southeastern Poland on April 3, 2023. (Getty Images)
A Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) poster displaying North Korean nuclear tests on February 12, 2013, at the CTBTO headquarters in Vienna, Austria. (Dieter Nagl/AFP via Getty Images)
Sailors assigned to Assault Craft Unit 4 prepare material recovered in the Atlantic Ocean from a high-altitude balloon for transport to federal agents at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek on February 10, 2023. (US Navy photo by Ryan Seelbach)
Sailors assigned to Assault Craft Unit Four operate landing craft air cushions during recovery efforts of a high-altitude balloon in the Atlantic Ocean, on February 8, 2023. (US Navy Photo by Ryan Seelbach)
A sailor assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 conducts a search for debris with an underwater vehicle during recovery efforts of a high-altitude balloon in the Atlantic Ocean on February 7, 2023. (US Navy Photo by Ryan Seelbach)