showdown. At the top, an Avenger-class minesweeper practices blowing up a mine it has found. Just above is the F-22 Raptor, a stealth aircraft recently deployed to the Persian Gulf. At left is the refitted USS Ponce being used as a floating base. It looks like an aircraft carrier, but has no fixed-wing planes. It has many helicopters and that funny-looking rear end is actually the entry to a dock from which it can launch small boats. Below that photo, a seaman from a foreign navy shows off a SeaFox, a drone submarine that searches out mines and then kills them in a suicide mission. Directly below is the flightdeck of the USS John Stennis, an aircraft carrier with a fighter jet about to be launched by steam catapault.

















