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)
A General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger unmanned aircraft flight tests the Skyborg Autonomy Core System in El Mirage, California, on June 24, 2021. (US Air Force photo by Tabatha Arellano)
The Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship USS Pioneer observes a controlled mine detonation while conducting a joint exercise with the Royal Thai Navy in the Gulf of Thailand on June 7, 2019. (US Navy Photo by Corbin Shea)
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)