Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles and Japan’s Defence Minister General Nakatani hold a joint press announcement aboard the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Mogami-class stealth frigate JS Mikuma at the JMSDF naval base in Yokosuka, Japan, on September 5, 2025. (Getty Images)
Iran Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers' Meeting on June 26, 2025 in Shanghai, China. (Fu Tian via Getty Images)
A Task Force 99 team member conducts pre-flight checks on an unmanned aerial vehicle in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, Mar. 18, 2025. Task Force 99 is a nimble, mission-driven unit built to drive innovation and strengthen U.S. Air Forces Central capabilities across all domains. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ricky Arnold)
Ukrainian military personnel control the unmanned ground vehicle platform Rys Pro equipped with a remote-controlled machine-gun turret during training on April 18, 2025, in an unspecified area of Ukraine. (Serhii Mykhalchuk via Getty Images)
Ukrainian servicemen of a mobile air defense unit fire a Soviet-made ZU-23 anti-aircraft twin autocannon toward a Russian drone during an air attack near Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, on July 19, 2025. (Roman Pilipey via Getty Images)
A formation of Dongfeng-41 nuclear missiles takes part in a military parade celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 2019. (Xia Yifang via Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute