19FortyFive — Defense, National Security and Military Analysis

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: 15.87 Ounces Loaded, a Glock 42 Weighs Less Than an Empty Glock 19, and 12 Years On It Is Still the Smallest Glock

The G42's locked breech makes it soft-shooting for its size, but the recoil spring is stout enough that Larry Vickers helped build an $18.95...

Steve Balestrieri16 hours ago

Aerospace & Defense

A tank with an unmanned turret and an armored crew capsule was shown off in 2015, kept out of its own country’s war because cheap drones might kill it, and is now being redrawn around a 152mm gun with 40 rounds, 24 in the autoloader, and a drone on a tether

The 152mm idea dates to the Soviet Object 195, which never entered production, and it forces a turret redesign, more internal volume and a...

Brandon Weichert22 hours ago

Uzi Submachine gun. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: 1.5 Million Uzis Went to 90 Nations for $2 Billion, and It Can Fire 600 Rounds in Just 1 Minute

Gal borrowed the telescoping bolt and grip-fed magazine from the Czech Sa vz. 23, built it from stamped steel, and gave the IDF a...

Steve Balestrieri22 hours ago

Aerospace & Defense

A 65,000-ton aircraft carrier that cost £6.2 billion and £96 million a year to keep defends itself with three Gatling guns that reach about two kilometers and nothing that fires farther, leans on destroyers its navy is short of, and keeps getting sunk in exercises

The 65,000-ton aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and her sister HMS Prince of Wales cost £96 million a year each to maintain, fly F-35Bs...

Brandon Weichert1 day ago

Aerospace & Defense

The B-36 Had a 230-Foot Wingspan, 10 Engines and a 10,000-Mile Range, Survived 5 Attempts to Cancel It, and None of Nearly 400 Built Dropped a Bomb in Anger

Designed in 1941 to strike Europe from the Western Hemisphere if Britain fell, the B-36 was saved by Gen. Hap Arnold the day Hiroshima...

Brandon Weichert1 day ago

Aerospace & Defense

100,000-Ton US Navy Nuclear Aircraft Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford Has a ‘Math Problem’ That Can’t Seem to Be Solved

Aerospace & Defense

The Case Against Resurrecting the Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird: Lost Expertise, Destroyed Spares and Cheaper Unmanned Alternatives

The Embassy

The Case for Economic Pressure Over Nuclear Diplomacy With Iran

Aerospace & Defense

Oil Might Be Flowing Through the Strait of Hormuz, But for All the Wrong Reasons

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

Putin’s Next Target May Be NATO Itself

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

Why the Witkoff-Kushner Mission Failed: Washington Still Misreads the Stakes in Ukraine

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

Germany Is Becoming Ukraine’s Most Important Ally in Europe — and Poland Is Paying the Price

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

NATO’s Answer to the Pentagon’s Europe Review Already Exists: The Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative

Aerospace & Defense

Aerospace & Defense

A Lockheed Mach 3.2 YF-12 Spy Plane Locked Onto a Target Drone From More Than 100 Miles Away and 14.2 Miles Below It, Then Killed It With a Missile Fired From 53 Miles. That Was 1966, and Only 3 of These Aircraft Were Ever Built.

Aerospace & Defense

Iran’s Missiles and Drones Missed US Navy Nuclear Aircraft Carriers. It Attacked the Base That Fed Them. Resupply for the USS Abraham Lincoln Moved 2,200 Miles to Diego Garcia, and the Food, Mail and Soap Had to Come That Far.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Best Striker-Fired Trigger in America Is Not on a Glock or an M&P. It Is on a $649 Walther.

Aerospace & Defense

A destroyer that survived Utah Beach and a kamikaze bomb turned in front of an aircraft carrier at 24 knots off Newfoundland in 1952, after her executive officer said the turn would hit it, and was cut in half, killing 176, while the carrier was back at sea in 10 days

Trillions

Trillions - 19FortyFive

‘Effectively Closed’: The Strait of Hormuz Oil and Gas Crisis Is Going from Bad to Even Worse

Trillions - 19FortyFive

21 Years Ago, Apple Founder Steve Jobs Advice on Time and ‘Living Someone Else’s Life’ Is the Truth Serum That Still Shapes Our World

Trillions - 19FortyFive

“Money Never Made a Man Happy Yet, Nor Will It. The More a Man Has, the More He Wants.” Benjamin Franklin Was the 8th of 17 Children, Got 2 Years of Schooling Because His Family Could Not Afford More, and His Face Is on the $100 Bill.

Trillions - 19FortyFive

Iran’s Economy Is Buckling. That Is Not the Same as Iran Being Ready to Sign a Deal

The Embassy

The Embassy

9/11’s Forgotten Lesson

The Embassy

Russia and NATO’s Gray Zone Actions Could Spark a War No One Wants

The Embassy

Putin’s Giant Gamble: Another Ukraine War Mobilization Is Filled with Unknown Risks and An Angry Russia Simmering

The Embassy

‘Pivotal Meeting’: Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Donald Trump Will Meet Today. Here’s What’s on the Agenda to Try and End the Ukraine War

Hermit Kingdom

Hermit Kingdom

Donald Trump Needs to Bring Concessions if He Wants a Deal with North Korea

Hermit Kingdom

What the Iran War Proved About America’s Nuclear Weapons Threat to North Korea

Hermit Kingdom

The North Korea Deal Donald Trump Should Actually Want

Hermit Kingdom

North Korea’s Fingerprints Are All Over Iran’s War Against America

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: 15.87 Ounces Loaded, a Glock 42 Weighs Less Than an Empty Glock 19, and 12 Years On It Is Still the Smallest Glock

Aerospace & Defense

A tank with an unmanned turret and an armored crew capsule was shown off in 2015, kept out of its own country’s war because cheap drones might kill it, and is now being redrawn around a 152mm gun with 40 rounds, 24 in the autoloader, and a drone on a tether

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: 1.5 Million Uzis Went to 90 Nations for $2 Billion, and It Can Fire 600 Rounds in Just 1 Minute

Aerospace & Defense

A 65,000-ton aircraft carrier that cost £6.2 billion and £96 million a year to keep defends itself with three Gatling guns that reach about two kilometers and nothing that fires farther, leans on destroyers its navy is short of, and keeps getting sunk in exercises

Aerospace & Defense

The B-36 Had a 230-Foot Wingspan, 10 Engines and a 10,000-Mile Range, Survived 5 Attempts to Cancel It, and None of Nearly 400 Built Dropped a Bomb in Anger

Trending

Aerospace & Defense

‘She Broke Free’: The CIA Used a Cover Story to Recover a Chunk of a Russian Ballistic Submarine Armed with Nuclear Warheads But Part of the Sub Slid Back Below the Waves

Aerospace & Defense

Boeing Spent $67,000,000 of Its Own Money Building YF-118G Bird of Prey Stealth Aircraft. It Flew 38 Times on Landing Gear From a Beech King Air and an Ejection Seat From a Harrier.

Aerospace & Defense

China’s J-20 And J-35A Stealth Fighters Don’t Have To Beat US Military F-22 Raptors And F-35s. Beijing Is Building Enough That They Don’t Need To

Aerospace & Defense

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird’s Pratt & Whitney J58 Engines Ran at Full Afterburner for Hours at a Time With Exhaust Temperatures Near 3,400 Degrees. At Mach 3.2 Cruise, Roughly 80 Percent of the Thrust Came From the Inlet, Not the Engine.

Aerospace & Defense

$850,000,000 Australian Submarine ‘Sank’ $5,500,000,000 US Navy Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier By Evading US, Japanese, Canadian, Chilean, Korean, and British Forces — 6 Navies — and Photographed the Supercarrier