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 US Navy boatswain’s mate launches a US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II aircraft off the amphibious assault carrier USS Tripoli in the Pacific Ocean on June 13, 2022. (US Marine Corps photo by Jackson Ricker)
A Kongsberg naval strike missile is launched from the littoral combat ship USS Coronado during missile testing operations off the coast of Southern California. (US Navy photo by Zachary D. Bell)
The Virginia-class, fast-attack submarine USS Indiana transits the Thames River as it arrives in Groton, Connecticut, on October 29, 2018. (US Navy photo by Steven Hoskins)
Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 conduct pre-dive checks during recovery efforts of a high-altitude balloon in the Atlantic Ocean on February 7, 2023. (US Navy photo by Ryan Seelbach)
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on August 4, 2022. (US Space Force photo by Dakota Raub)
Sailors assigned to Assault Craft Unit 4 prepare material recovered in the Atlantic Ocean from a high-altitude balloon for transport to federal agents at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek on February 10, 2023. (US Navy photo by Ryan Seelbach)