Blog - 19FortyFive

The Challenger 3 Main Battle tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

Britain Is Spending Close to £2,000,000,000 to Field 148 Challenger 3 Tanks by 2030. An Investigation Found the Program May Slip 2 Years Because the Turret Power Traverse Gearbox — a Part Carried Over From the Challenger 2 — Is Not Strong Enough to Turn the Heavier New Turret.

The Ministry of Defence awarded RBSL £800 million in May 2021 for 148 Challenger 3 vehicles, near £2 billion across the whole of life....

Brandon WeichertSeptember 11, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

In 1987 Japan Agreed to Build a Licensed Version of the American F-16 Fighting Falcon Instead of Its Own Fighter. More Than 95 Percent of the Engineering Drawings Were Changed, and the Finished Mitsubishi F-2 Cost About $127,000,000 Each Against $30,000,000 for an F-16.

On March 11, 2011, the tsunami flooded Matsushima Air Base and submerged 18 F-2Bs in salt water. Five were scrapped. Japan repaired the other...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 11, 2026

A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft assigned to the 115th Fighter Wing, Wisconsin Air National Guard is parked on the ramp at sunrise during the 115th FW 2026 Combat Readiness Exercise, Operation Iron Orchid, at Volk Field Air National Guard Base, Camp Douglas, Wisconsin, June 26, 2026. Operation Iron Orchid is designed to assess and reinforce the wing’s ability to generate combat capability, sustain operations, protect personnel and resources, respond to evolving conditions, and execute mission-essential tasks in a realistic and challenging environment. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Mary Greenwood)

Aerospace & Defense

Canada Finalized an Agreement to Buy 88 Lockheed Martin F-35A Fighter Jets Back in January 2023. Almost 18 Months Into a Review Ordered by Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ottawa Is Committed to Only 16 of Them — and the First Ones Still Arrive This Year.

The F-35 has competition. Saab is pitching a mixed fleet. But the Gripen E flies on General Electric's F414, an American engine under U.S....

Jack BuckbySeptember 11, 2026

Su-57 artist rendering. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

Russia’s Su-57 Felon Has Exactly 1 Confirmed Export Customer: Algeria, Which Has Taken Delivery of 2 Aircraft. Estimates Put the Fighter’s Frontal Radar Cross-Section Between 0.1 and 1.0 Square Meters Against Roughly 0.0015 for the F-35A.

Russia ordered 76 Su-57s for delivery by 2027-2028. By early 2026 some estimates put the operational fleet at twenty to thirty. Moscow's defense industry...

Caleb LarsonSeptember 11, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

Canada Has Named Germany’s TKMS Preferred Supplier for Up to 12 Type 212CD Submarines, With the First 4 Due in 2034. Only 1 of Its 4 Existing Victoria-Class Boats Is Seaworthy, and Ottawa Has Never Published a Number for How Many Submariners It Will Need.

The Royal Canadian Navy lists the Victoria-class complement at 48 crew plus 11 trainees per boat. TKMS puts the Type 212CD core crew at...

Andrew LathamSeptember 11, 2026

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

1 North Korean Gun Hit 55,000-Ton Navy Iowa-Class Battleship USS Wisconsin in 1952. She Answered With All Nine 16-Inch Guns, and the Ships Beside Her Signaled 2 Words: ‘Temper, Temper’

Aerospace & Defense

Soviet Nuclear Submarine K-278 Komsomolets Had an Escape Capsule That Separated as She Sank. Only 1 Man Inside Survived the Ascent, and 42 Sailors Died in the Norwegian Sea in 1989

Aerospace & Defense

Ukraine Handed Russia 8 Tu-160 White Swan Bombers in a 1999 Deal Over Energy Debts. Each Can Carry 12 Long-Range Cruise Missiles, the Kind of Weapon Now Driving Russia’s Air War on Ukraine

Aerospace & Defense

Russia’s Nuclear Battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov Served 11 Years, Then Spent 29 Out of Service. She Just Returned to Her Home Port With 176 Missile Cells, More Than Any Warship in the World

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

Saudi Arabia’s Worst-Case Iran Scenario Hasn’t Even Begun

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

Hermit Kingdom

Hermit Kingdom

The Case for Another Donald Trump-North Korea Summit

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

Aerospace & Defense

Britain Is Spending Close to £2,000,000,000 to Field 148 Challenger 3 Tanks by 2030. An Investigation Found the Program May Slip 2 Years Because the Turret Power Traverse Gearbox — a Part Carried Over From the Challenger 2 — Is Not Strong Enough to Turn the Heavier New Turret.

Aerospace & Defense

In 1987 Japan Agreed to Build a Licensed Version of the American F-16 Fighting Falcon Instead of Its Own Fighter. More Than 95 Percent of the Engineering Drawings Were Changed, and the Finished Mitsubishi F-2 Cost About $127,000,000 Each Against $30,000,000 for an F-16.

Aerospace & Defense

Canada Finalized an Agreement to Buy 88 Lockheed Martin F-35A Fighter Jets Back in January 2023. Almost 18 Months Into a Review Ordered by Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ottawa Is Committed to Only 16 of Them — and the First Ones Still Arrive This Year.

Aerospace & Defense

Russia’s Su-57 Felon Has Exactly 1 Confirmed Export Customer: Algeria, Which Has Taken Delivery of 2 Aircraft. Estimates Put the Fighter’s Frontal Radar Cross-Section Between 0.1 and 1.0 Square Meters Against Roughly 0.0015 for the F-35A.

Aerospace & Defense

Canada Has Named Germany’s TKMS Preferred Supplier for Up to 12 Type 212CD Submarines, With the First 4 Due in 2034. Only 1 of Its 4 Existing Victoria-Class Boats Is Seaworthy, and Ottawa Has Never Published a Number for How Many Submariners It Will Need.

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

82 Years Later, General George Patton’s Best US Army Line Is Still the Greatest Military Quote in Armed Forces History

Aerospace & Defense

The US Air Force SR-71 Blackbird Burned Through 8,000 Gallons of Jet Fuel On the Way to Hitting Mach 3 and over 80,000 Feet of Altitude

Aerospace & Defense

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

Aerospace & Defense

Russia’s New ‘Diesel’ Lada-Class Submarine Summed Up in 4 Words