Bucket-wheel excavators mine rare earth materials on Ukrainian soil on February 25, 2025, in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine. (Kostiantyn Liberov via Getty Images)
The guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald fires the first Naval Strike Missile from a US destroyer on July 18, 2024, in the Pacific Ocean. (US Navy photo)
Fast-attack submarine USS North Carolina (SSN 777) enters Dry Dock 1 at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Hawaii, on September 4, 2024. (US Navy photo by Justice Vannatta)
A South Korean Army K1E1 tank crosses a pontoon bridge on the Imjin River during a joint river- crossing exercise as part of the Freedom Shield military drills with US and ROK forces in the border town of Yeoncheon, South Korea, on March 20, 2025. (Getty Images)
An unmanned surface vehicle (USV) conducts testing of an autonomous over-the-horizon solution conceived by student researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) during a Navy exercise off the coast of California on August 19, 2023. (US Navy photo)
The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning prepares for sea trials at Dalian shipyard on February 29, 2024, in Dalian, China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
Airmen from the 1st Air Support Operations Group utilize data links as part of Exercise Chaos Quate at Moody Air Force Base on March 15, 2022. (US Air Force photo by 1st Lt Katie Tamesis)
A MARTAC T-24 unmanned surface vehicle (USV) drives autonomously during a demonstration for NATO mine countermeasures personnel as part of exercise Baltic Operations 2023 (BALTOPS 23). (DVIDS)
A US Air Force F-35A Lightning II refuels during exercise Mobility Guardian 23 on July 18, 2023, over the Pacific Ocean. (US Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Christian Sullivan)
US Marines remove “Amy,” an uncrewed surface vehicle, from the water during Technology Operational Experimentation Event 23.1 on Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, on April 21, 2023. (US Marine Corps photo)
A contractor welds on the flight deck aboard the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), in Norfolk, Virginia, on January 21, 2014. (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Crayton Agnew)
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Daniel Inouye sails behind the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt on January 25, 2024. (Chris Williamson via DVIDS)