This is inspired by seeing Top Gun: Maverick, where one fighter has a second person in the cockpit as a weapons system officer, while the other doesn’t. Does the other aircraft only have a one-seat cockpit?
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This can be a strange part of how crew positions in military aircraft are assigned.
As in the other answers, a lot of it is intended design based on specific system needs. Sometimes, though, it’s just tradition. Aircraft squadrons transition between different aircraft over the years and they often take the mentality they used in one aircraft into the next one.
A good example of this that I am familiar with is the MH-60R helicopter flown by the US and a few other countries. This aircraft is a Seahawk, which is a very similar airframe to a Blackhawk. There are two pilot stations in the cockpit, both of which have a full complement of flight and mission controls. Any aspect of flight can be conducted from either seat. There is also a seat in the back for an enlisted crewman, typically identified as the sensor operator.
In the US Navy, the two cockpit seats are filled by Naval Aviators, i.e., fully rated pilots. All pilots are trained in both flight-related and mission-related systems and tactics.
Contrast this with the Danish Air Force and Australian Navy, both of which operate the MH-60R with a pilot and the equivalent of a WSO. The Danes call them Tactical Coordination Officers and the Aussies call them Aviation Warfare Officers. Similar to NFOs, they receive some flight time in training, but are not fully rated pilots. They focus much more on the mission sets, employing the sensors of the aircraft in various mission roles. The pilots do receive some mission training, but are much more focused on flight operations. Unlike a lot of fighter jets, the AvWOs and TACCOs do fly the aircraft during many flights, but most of the time that is during non-mission-critical phases, and they rarely takeoff and land.
As for why the US and the other countries are different? Tradition. In the US, the aircraft community that flies the MH-60R had two pilots in the last aircraft, and the Aussies and Danes had the Pilot/NFO setup in their last aircraft.
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