Isaac Seitz

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

USS Iowa (BB-61) Fires a full broadside of nine 16/50 and six 5/38 guns during a target exercise near Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, 1 July 1984. Photographed by PHAN J. Alan Elliott. Note concussion effects on the water surface, and 16-inch gun barrels in varying degrees of recoil. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the the Department of Defense Still Media Collection.

Aerospace & Defense

Four US Navy battleships mothballed for decades came back in 1982 for $1.7 billion to answer a Soviet nuclear battlecruiser, one plan cut off an aft 16-inch turret for a Harrier flight deck, the Navy bolted on 32 Tomahawks and 16 Harpoons instead, and all four were gone by 1992

Reactivating USS New Jersey alone was estimated at $247 million in 1982, about $857 million today. The battleships got AN/SPS-49 radars, SLQ-32 electronic warfare...

Isaac Seitz1 day ago

(July 29, 2025) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59) fires its forward Mark 45 5-inch gun during a weapons maintenance shoot, July 29, 2025. The Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group is underway conducting routine operations in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jacob I. Allison)

Aerospace & Defense

A 122-missile cruiser had $161.15 million set aside for a four-year overhaul and was decommissioned before a worker touched her, one of four the Navy retired mid-upgrade after putting $1.84 billion into them, and the three it finished leave the fleet in 2029

USS Hue City had $161.15 million allocated for her upgrade and was decommissioned before work began. A 2024 GAO report counted 9,000 contract changes...

Isaac Seitz2 days ago

Aerospace & Defense

7 Years Later, US Marine General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis and His Line on Aggressiveness Is Still One of the Greatest Military Quotes in Armed Forces History

He took a history degree at Central Washington in 1971 and a commission the following year, and never stopped reading. In 2003 he drove...

Isaac Seitz2 days ago

Aerospace & Defense

‘We Are All Born Ignorant, but One Must Work Hard to Remain Stupid.’ Benjamin Franklin Changed His Mind on Independence at 69 and on Slavery at 84. 236 Years His Quote Still Holds

Humiliated before the Privy Council in 1774, Franklin sailed home a rebel in 1775, helped edit the Declaration, won France for the Revolution and...

Isaac Seitz3 days ago

George Patton Portrait Creative Commons Photo

Aerospace & Defense

Many Decades Later, General George Patton’s Best US Army Line On Loyalty Is Still One of the Greatest Military Quotes in Armed Forces History

West Point 1909, the 1912 Olympics, II Corps after Kasserine, Seventh Army across Sicily, a year sidelined for slapping two soldiers, a fake army...

Isaac Seitz3 days ago

Aerospace & Defense

Forget the SR-71 Blackbird: The US Navy’s F-14D Tomcat Fighter Might Make a Comeback and Fly Again

No new parts may be built under the bill, so F-14D Tomcat restorers must work from Navy stocks. The F110 engines are the easy...

Isaac Seitz4 days ago

MEDITERRANEAN SEA (July 20, 2017) The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) sails through the Mediterranean Sea in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. The ship and its carrier strike group are conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Zachary Wickline/Released)

Aerospace & Defense

Russia Was 40 Percent Done With a Nimitz-Class Style Aircraft Carrier That Might Have Been 94,000-Tons and Had 4 Nuclear Reactors When It Was Scrapped

Laid down at Mykolaiv in 1988 beside the future Liaoning, the 1,054-foot aircraft carrier Ulyanovsk had a 70%-complete hull by 1992 when Russia told...

Isaac Seitz4 days ago

F-14 Tomcat Museum Photo 19FortyFive Photo Taken September 2026

Aerospace & Defense

An F-14 Tomcat Pilot Could Sweep His Wings Back by Hand to Show an Enemy Fighter a False Airspeed. He Could Not Sweep Them Forward of What the Computer Commanded, Because the Lift Would Have Damaged the Aircraft.

The Navy walked out of the joint program with the Air Force because it did not believe a shared design could survive carrier operations,...

Isaac Seitz5 days ago

Russian T-90 Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

Russia Worked Out That Ammunition Stored in the Fighting Compartment Was Blowing Its Tanks Apart, So the T-90M Got a Bustle Magazine With Blowout Panels. It Kept the Carousel Under the Crew Anyway. Oryx Has Now Documented 159 T-90M Losses — More Than Russia Had When the War Began.

The T-90M was the answer to everything the earlier tanks got wrong: a welded turret, Relikt reactive armor, the Kalina fire control suite, and...

Isaac Seitz5 days ago

19FortyFive

Isaac Seitz

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

Aerospace & Defense

Four US Navy battleships mothballed for decades came back in 1982 for $1.7 billion to answer a Soviet nuclear battlecruiser, one plan cut off an aft 16-inch turret for a Harrier flight deck, the Navy bolted on 32 Tomahawks and 16 Harpoons instead, and all four were gone by 1992

Aerospace & Defense

A 122-missile cruiser had $161.15 million set aside for a four-year overhaul and was decommissioned before a worker touched her, one of four the Navy retired mid-upgrade after putting $1.84 billion into them, and the three it finished leave the fleet in 2029

Aerospace & Defense

7 Years Later, US Marine General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis and His Line on Aggressiveness Is Still One of the Greatest Military Quotes in Armed Forces History

Aerospace & Defense

‘We Are All Born Ignorant, but One Must Work Hard to Remain Stupid.’ Benjamin Franklin Changed His Mind on Independence at 69 and on Slavery at 84. 236 Years His Quote Still Holds

Aerospace & Defense

Many Decades Later, General George Patton’s Best US Army Line On Loyalty Is Still One of the Greatest Military Quotes in Armed Forces History

Aerospace & Defense

Forget the SR-71 Blackbird: The US Navy’s F-14D Tomcat Fighter Might Make a Comeback and Fly Again

Aerospace & Defense

Russia Was 40 Percent Done With a Nimitz-Class Style Aircraft Carrier That Might Have Been 94,000-Tons and Had 4 Nuclear Reactors When It Was Scrapped

Aerospace & Defense

An F-14 Tomcat Pilot Could Sweep His Wings Back by Hand to Show an Enemy Fighter a False Airspeed. He Could Not Sweep Them Forward of What the Computer Commanded, Because the Lift Would Have Damaged the Aircraft.

Aerospace & Defense

Russia Worked Out That Ammunition Stored in the Fighting Compartment Was Blowing Its Tanks Apart, So the T-90M Got a Bustle Magazine With Blowout Panels. It Kept the Carousel Under the Crew Anyway. Oryx Has Now Documented 159 T-90M Losses — More Than Russia Had When the War Began.

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