On Tuesday, February 14, the U.S. Air Force had shot down four flying objects that have intruded on the skies over North America since the beginning of this month. The deployment of force is unprecedented for the U.S. during peacetime—leveraging some of the U.S. military’s most advanced fighter planes, surveillance tools, and expensive air-to-air missiles. The first object shot down was an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon that the Biden Administration says was part of a years-long scheme to spy on nations across the Earth. But so far, officials have been much less clear what the other objects are. One shot down over Alaska Feb. 10 was described as a “car-sized object” that did not appear to have a propulsion source. One downed over Canada the next day was described as “cylindrical,” potentially a balloon, but smaller than the Chinese balloon.

On Wednesday, February 15, it was assessed that the large ICBMs displayed by North Korea during military parades, such as the one in Pyongyang last week, always catch a lot of attention. But while there are some hints to capabilities from observing the missiles, the truest test of the DPRK’s missile designs come from live launches. And there is an unfortunate amount of cases to draw from. Most dramatically, in a test on Oct. 4, an intermediate range ballistic missile overflew Japan, the first time a DPRK launch took such a trajectory since 2017. The missile reportedly flew more than 4,500 km and reached an altitude of 965 km, passing well over Japan before landing in the Pacific Ocean. And as with all North Korean launches, the effort was on to try and identify whether this is a known weapon or a new design.

Also on Wednesday, a fresh analysis of unidentified aerial objects that flew over Japan’s airspace in recent years “strongly” suggests they were Chinese spy balloons, according to Tokyo’s defense ministry. “After further analysis of specific balloon-shaped flying objects previously identified in Japanese airspace, including those in November 2019, June 2020, and September 2021, we have concluded that the balloons are strongly presumed to be unmanned reconnaissance balloons flown by China,” the ministry said in a statement.

On Thursday, February 16, it was reviewed that U.S. fighter jets intercepted four Russian warplanes near Alaska on Tuesday, the second time Kremlin aircraft were in the area in two days. The Alaskan Region of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) “detected, tracked, positively identified and intercepted four Russian aircraft approaching the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ),” the command said in a Thursday statement.

On Saturday, February 18, North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the sea off Japan's west coast, prompting the United States to hold joint air exercises with South Korea and separately with Japan on Sunday. Then on Monday, North Korea responded by launching two short range ballistic missiles and artillery shells towards its eastern waters.

On Monday, February 20, President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a defiant display of Western solidarity with a country still fighting what he called "a brutal and unjust war' days before the first anniversary of Russia's invasion.

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