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)
Paratroopers assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division conduct a systems check on their VROD/VMAX electronic warfare equipment before conducting a tactical exercise in El Paso, Texas, on November 20, 2018. (US Army Photo)
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meet with Republic of Korea’s Minister of Defense Suh Wook for the 53rd US-Republic of Korea Security Consultative Meeting in Seoul, South Korea, on December 2, 2021. (DOD Photo by Navy Chief Petty Officer Carlos M. Vazquez II)
Chinese J-20 stealth fighters of the People's Liberation Army Air Force perform at Airshow China 2022 in Zhuhai, China, on November 8, 2022. (CNS/AFP via Getty Images)
A US Navy Douglas F4D-1 Skyray assigned to Carrier Air Group 21 (CVG-21) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington in flight off Taiwan, circa 1958. (Wikimedia Commons)
A Standard Missile-3 Block 1A interceptor is launched from the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie during a Missile Defense Agency and US Navy test in the Pacific Ocean on February 13, 2013. (US Navy photo)
A Ukrainian soldier fires a US-made MK-19 automatic grenade launcher near the front lines of the conflict in the Donetsk region on October 12, 2022. (Dave Clark/AFP via Getty Images)
Sailors conduct helicopter rope suspension technique training from an MH-60S Sea Hawk on the flight deck aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in the Philippine Sea on October 29, 2022. (US Navy Photo by Michael B. Jarmiolowski)