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)
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meet with Republic of Korea’s Minister of Defense Suh Wook for the 53rd US-Republic of Korea Security Consultative Meeting in Seoul, South Korea, on December 2, 2021. (DOD Photo by Navy Chief Petty Officer Carlos M. Vazquez II)
A US Navy Douglas F4D-1 Skyray assigned to Carrier Air Group 21 (CVG-21) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington in flight off Taiwan, circa 1958. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan leads a mass formation of ships from Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, France, Canada, Australia, and the US during Rim of the Pacific drills in the Pacific on July 24, 2010. (US Navy photo by Robert Taylor)
US soldiers coordinate boat movement during a wet-gap crossing operation as part of joint military drills Dęblin, Poland, on May 13, 2022. (Army National Guard Photo)