Blog - 19FortyFive

NASA SR-71 Blackbird Creative Commons NASA Photo

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.

Lockheed stripped the cameras out of a Blackbird, put a Hughes AN/ASG-18 fire control radar in the nose and three AIM-47 Falcons in internal...

Brandon Weichert8 hours ago

Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), right, and Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls (CG 62) sail in the South China Sea, Sept. 14, 2026. Frank E. Petersen Jr. is underway conducting routine operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations. Units assigned to 7th Fleet conduct continuous patrols to deter aggression, strengthen alliances and partnerships, and advance peace through strength. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nathaly Cruz)

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.

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier sailed from San Diego on November 21, 2025 for a seven-month deployment and was extended twice. Her air...

Steve Balestrieri9 hours ago

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.

American Rifleman's test guns broke between 4 pounds 8 ounces and 5 pounds, and put 27 of 30 five-shot groups under two inches at...

Steve Balestrieri10 hours ago

ATLANTIC OCEAN (Oct. 29, 2019) USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) conducts high-speed turns in the Atlantic Ocean. Ford is at sea conducting sea trials following the in port portion of its 15 month post-shakedown availability. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Connor Loessin)

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

The nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford returned to Norfolk after 326 days, the longest US carrier deployment since Vietnam, beating USS Abraham...

Steve Balestrieri11 hours ago

USS Wasp CV-18 Aircraft Carrier Creative Commons

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

USS Hobson's executive officer objected that the maneuver would put her on a collision course with the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, lost the argument,...

Isaac Seitz23 hours ago

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 Mach 3 US Air Force SR-71 Blackbird Buzzed Sacramento’s Control Tower in Afterburner. The Tower Wanted More

Aerospace & Defense

A 25% Chance: NASA’s Former SR-71 Blackbird Engineer on Whether Tail 844 Flies Again

Aerospace & Defense

100,000-Ton Wait: It Took 15 Long Years for the US Navy to Almost Get a New Ford-Class Nuclear Aircraft Carrier

Aerospace & Defense

US Navy 100,000-Ton Nimitz-Class and Ford-Class Nuclear Aircraft Carriers Have 1 Clear Weakness That Can’t Ever Be Fixed

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

The Case for Economic Pressure Over Nuclear Diplomacy With Iran

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aerospace & Defense

A Canadian Oberon-Class Diesel Submarine Built in the 1960s Worth About $80,000,000 Slipped Past an Entire US Navy Carrier Group. The Umpire Declared the $5,500,000,000 Nuclear Aircraft Carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Sunk.