Steve Balestrieri

Model 69 Combat Magnum Smith and Wesson Gun

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: Smith & Wesson Put .44 Magnum Into a 5-Shot Revolver Weighing 34.3 Ounces With a 2.75-Inch Barrel. It Still Delivers About 200 More Foot-Pounds Than a Compact 10mm or a Snub .357.

Smith & Wesson revived a name it had not used since 1955, when Bill Jordan talked the company into stretching a K-frame .38 into...

Steve Balestrieri6 days ago

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: A 300-Grain .50 Action Express Round Leaves a Desert Eagle at About 1,542 Feet Per Second With Roughly 1,500 Foot-Pounds Behind It. That Is Closer to a Lever-Action Rifle Than to Any Other Handgun.

The Desert Eagle has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows and games and in almost no holsters. That reputation hides what it actually...

Steve Balestrieri6 days ago

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Smith & Wesson Model 460 Fires a 200-Grain Bullet at 2,330 Feet Per Second for More Than 2,400 Foot-Pounds of Muzzle Energy. With a Scope on It You Can Hunt Deer at 200 Yards With a Handgun.

Smith & Wesson built the Model 460 in 2005 around a cartridge it developed with Hornady for one purpose: to be the fastest thing...

Steve Balestrieri7 days ago

Aerospace & Defense

The Youngest B-52 Was Built in 1962 and the US Air Force Plans to Fly It Until 2050 — 88 Years in Service. In Early March 2026, B-52s Struck Ballistic Missile Sites Inside Iran for the First Time.

The B-52H is being re-engined with Rolls-Royce F130s for a 30 percent fuel efficiency gain, and the old AN/APQ-166 is being replaced with an...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 14, 2026

Smith & Wesson Model 500. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Smith & Wesson Model 500 Puts Out About 2,580 Foot-Pounds at the Muzzle and Kicks Roughly 3 Times Harder Than a .44 Magnum. It Is Not a Range Gun.

Herb Belin decided at the 2002 SHOT Show that Smith & Wesson should reclaim a title it had invented with the .357 and .44...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 14, 2026

Taurus Judge/Public Defender. Image: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Taurus Judge Fires .410 Shotgun Shells and .45 Colt Out of the Same 5-Round Cylinder, and It Is Legal Where a Sawed-Off Shotgun Is Not.

Taurus built the Judge around a slow 1:12 rifling twist — fast enough to stabilize a single .45 Colt bullet, gentle enough not to...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 14, 2026

Glock 45. Image Credit: Creative Commons/Glock Handout.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Glock Gen 6 Fixed the Trigger Guard, the Beavertail and the Optics Mount. It Did Not Fix the Grip Angle.

The Glock Gen 6 drops the MOS adapter plate stack entirely. The slide is machined to take polymer sealing plates so RMR- and DPP-footprint...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 14, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO. The Glock 23 Is an Excellent Pistol and I Am Not a Fan of the .40 S&W Cartridge It Fires.

Glock 23: Same compact frame as a Glock 19, 13+1 rounds, a striker-fired action with few moving parts, and thirty-six years of continuous production...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 13, 2026

F-15J Fighter from Japan Creative Commons Image

Aerospace & Defense

Japan’s Mach 2.5 F-15J Fighter Won’t Ever Fly for the Air Force As It Was Custom Built for Tokyo

Denied the AN/ALQ-135 jammer, Japan fitted its own J/ALQ-8. Denied the AN/ALR-56, it built the J/APR-4. It even developed its own tactical data link...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 12, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

Sweden’s Saab JAS-39 Gripen E Costs About $4,700 to $9,900 per Flight Hour Against $38,000 to $42,000 for an F-35A and Up to $68,000 for an F-22 Raptor. It Has No Stealth Airframe, and a Handful of Conscripts With 1 Technician Can Rearm It on a Public Road in Under 20 Minutes.

Saab's JAS 39 Gripen answer to low observability is not shape. It is the Arexis suite — spherical electronic warfare coverage built on gallium...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 12, 2026

19FortyFive

Steve Balestrieri

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: Smith & Wesson Put .44 Magnum Into a 5-Shot Revolver Weighing 34.3 Ounces With a 2.75-Inch Barrel. It Still Delivers About 200 More Foot-Pounds Than a Compact 10mm or a Snub .357.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: A 300-Grain .50 Action Express Round Leaves a Desert Eagle at About 1,542 Feet Per Second With Roughly 1,500 Foot-Pounds Behind It. That Is Closer to a Lever-Action Rifle Than to Any Other Handgun.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Smith & Wesson Model 460 Fires a 200-Grain Bullet at 2,330 Feet Per Second for More Than 2,400 Foot-Pounds of Muzzle Energy. With a Scope on It You Can Hunt Deer at 200 Yards With a Handgun.

Aerospace & Defense

The Youngest B-52 Was Built in 1962 and the US Air Force Plans to Fly It Until 2050 — 88 Years in Service. In Early March 2026, B-52s Struck Ballistic Missile Sites Inside Iran for the First Time.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Smith & Wesson Model 500 Puts Out About 2,580 Foot-Pounds at the Muzzle and Kicks Roughly 3 Times Harder Than a .44 Magnum. It Is Not a Range Gun.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Taurus Judge Fires .410 Shotgun Shells and .45 Colt Out of the Same 5-Round Cylinder, and It Is Legal Where a Sawed-Off Shotgun Is Not.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Glock Gen 6 Fixed the Trigger Guard, the Beavertail and the Optics Mount. It Did Not Fix the Grip Angle.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO. The Glock 23 Is an Excellent Pistol and I Am Not a Fan of the .40 S&W Cartridge It Fires.

Aerospace & Defense

Japan’s Mach 2.5 F-15J Fighter Won’t Ever Fly for the Air Force As It Was Custom Built for Tokyo

Aerospace & Defense

Sweden’s Saab JAS-39 Gripen E Costs About $4,700 to $9,900 per Flight Hour Against $38,000 to $42,000 for an F-35A and Up to $68,000 for an F-22 Raptor. It Has No Stealth Airframe, and a Handful of Conscripts With 1 Technician Can Rearm It on a Public Road in Under 20 Minutes.

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