My favourite part of the 2012 Ausmin joint communique, tucked right in at the end of the 9 page document, the intention of the Australia and the US to…

consult as the United States develops the phased adaptive approach to ballistic missile defence, which will allow missile defence to be adapted to the threats unique to the Asia Pacific;

continue our cooperation to build a more detailed understanding of regional ballistic missile threats and cooperative research on technologies to counter such threats, and options for practical cooperation in this area;

While the threat of Reagan’s Stars Wars was blamed/credited for upsetting the balance between the US and Soviet Union. Twenty years of technology advances later, a new threat from ballistic missiles is apparently afoot.