Aviation technology has evolved exponentially over the past century, from the nimble biplanes that contested the skies over France and Flanders in World War I to the jets that first flew in the dying days of World War II and to the modern multi-role stealth fighters coming into service that will define air power for the next half century.

The tank was introduced in World War I to contest the dominance of mass infantry armies in the trenches, but its full potential wasn't realized until the Blitzkrieg campaigns that launched World War II. The Cold War saw the armies of the great powers become fully mechanized and operate under combined arms doctrines.

From the Battle of Jutland where the British and German battlefleets met head on, to the great carrier battles between the US and Japan in the Pacific, naval warfare has been crucial to the outcomes of both world wars. Today's most powerful navies add formidable air and submarine power to their traditional surface might.