Blog - 19FortyFive

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

Over a service life from 1966 to 1998 more than 4,000 missiles were fired at the SR-71 Blackbird and not one ever hit it — because the unarmed spy plane’s entire defense against a surface-to-air missile was a single instruction to the pilot: go faster

Summary and Key Points: The SR-71 Blackbird flew the Cold War’s most dangerous reconnaissance missions — over the Soviet periphery, North Vietnam and North...

Harry J. KazianisMay 31, 2026

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

A Chinese defense firm claims its AI tracked four US B-2 stealth bombers over Iran by their radio signals and reconstructed the flight path of an aircraft built to be all but invisible — but it has produced no recordings, no transcripts, no proof

Summary and Key Points: A Hangzhou defense firm, Jingan Technology, says its “Jingqi” AI system intercepted radio signals from four B-2 Spirit bombers —...

Christian D. OrrMay 31, 2026

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

In 2017 Russian Navy divers pulled an American-built P-39 Airacobra out of an Arctic lake 72 years after it crashed on a 1945 training flight — and where they expected to find the pilot’s remains, all that was left was part of his fur-lined boot

Summary and Key Points: More than 70 years after it sank, an American-built P-39 Airacobra was raised from an Arctic lake near Murmansk —...

Stephen SilverMay 31, 2026

U.S. Marines with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, currently forward deployed with 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division as part of the Unit Deployment Program, engage a simulated enemy while rehearsing squad attacks during the Korean Marine Exchange Program 26.1 on Suseong-Ri, Pohang, South Korea, April 2, 2026. The Korean Marine Exchange Program (KMEP) is a semi-annual exercise that provides opportunities for ROK Marine Corps and U.S. Marine Corps units to train together, improving their combined capabilities to deter threats and maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Joaquin Dela Torre)

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

The U.S. Marine Corps assigns every Marine to one of four color-coded stress zones — green, yellow, orange or red — and the system exists to catch what it calls a “mental injury”

The U.S. Marine Corps fosters an environment that provides physical fitness training, elite morale, unit cohesion, valuable friendship and camaraderie, and a high level...

Brent M. EastwoodMay 31, 2026

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

On 30 October 1961 the Soviet Union detonated a single bomb called Tsar Bomba over the Arctic — and its 50-megaton blast was more powerful than every bomb, shell and explosive used by every nation in the entire Second World War, ten times over

Summary and Key Points: The Tsar Bomba is still the largest nuclear device ever detonated: a 50-megaton blast over the Arctic that outstripped every...

Christian D. OrrMay 31, 2026

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

The Case for NATO: Leaving Europe Would Be a Serious Strategic Mistake for America

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

The Iran Deal Doesn’t Stop at Iran: Russia, China, and North Korea are Watching

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

The Iran War Is Giving China Time, Russia Money, and North Korea an Opening

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

Russia Is the Big Winner in the Iran War

Smart Bombs

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

U.S. Air Force Long Range Weapon (AFLRW): The 1,000-Mile Missile Built for a China War

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

The U.S. Army Ditched Lockheed’s $40,000,000 Hypersonic Missile. Lockheed Just Built a Cheaper One

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

The World’s Only Nuclear-Powered Warship That Isn’t a Carrier Is Heading to the Arctic to Guard Russia’s Hidden Nuclear Submarines

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

The F-35 “Kill Switch,” Explained: There Isn’t One, but the U.S. Still Holds Real Leverage Over Allied Fleets

Trillions

Trillions - 19FortyFive

The U.S. Spent $43,000,000 on a Single Gas Station in Afghanistan. It Should Have Cost $500,000

Trillions - 19FortyFive

My Wife and I Bought a 2024 Jeep Gladiator We Can’t Park in the Garage, Because It Might Catch Fire, and There’s No Fix Yet

Trillions - 19FortyFive

Iran Doesn’t Need to Close the Strait of Hormuz. The Threat Is the Weapon

Trillions - 19FortyFive

SpaceX Was Built to Colonize Mars. Now It’s Going to the Moon Instead, and That May Be the Smarter Path to the Red Planet

The Embassy

The Embassy

Germany’s Army Is Rebooting for What Was Once Unthinkable: A War with Russia

The Embassy

The Flaw in JD Vance’s Iran Deal: The IAEA Only Inspects Declared Nuclear Sites

The Embassy

Target Moscow: The Ukraine War Has Come Right to Putin’s Doorstep

The Embassy

The U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding Is a Strategic Defeat for America

Hermit Kingdom

Hermit Kingdom

KN-23: Russia Is Using North Korean Ballistic Missiles in the Ukraine War That Keep Getting Deadlier Every Passing Day

Hermit Kingdom

North Korea Capsized Its New Destroyer on Live TV Before Kim Jong Un: Now It’s Building Warships Twice the Size

Hermit Kingdom

6,000 North Korean Soldiers Are Dead in Ukraine: Kim Jong Un Keeps Sending More

Hermit Kingdom

Iran Has An ICBM Program: They Got it From North Korea

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

Over a service life from 1966 to 1998 more than 4,000 missiles were fired at the SR-71 Blackbird and not one ever hit it — because the unarmed spy plane’s entire defense against a surface-to-air missile was a single instruction to the pilot: go faster

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

A Chinese defense firm claims its AI tracked four US B-2 stealth bombers over Iran by their radio signals and reconstructed the flight path of an aircraft built to be all but invisible — but it has produced no recordings, no transcripts, no proof

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

In 2017 Russian Navy divers pulled an American-built P-39 Airacobra out of an Arctic lake 72 years after it crashed on a 1945 training flight — and where they expected to find the pilot’s remains, all that was left was part of his fur-lined boot

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

The U.S. Marine Corps assigns every Marine to one of four color-coded stress zones — green, yellow, orange or red — and the system exists to catch what it calls a “mental injury”

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

On 30 October 1961 the Soviet Union detonated a single bomb called Tsar Bomba over the Arctic — and its 50-megaton blast was more powerful than every bomb, shell and explosive used by every nation in the entire Second World War, ten times over

Trending

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

Nuclear Aircraft Carrier Charles de Gaulle’s Propeller Broke Off In The Middle Of The Atlantic — And That Was Only Her Second-Worst Sea Trial

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

Charles de Gaulle: The 42,000-Ton Nuclear Aircraft Carrier With A Construction Saga That Makes The F-35 And Ford-Class Look Easy

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

The U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-Class Nuclear Aircraft Carriers Have a Message for Russia and China

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

The F-35 Is the Most Expensive Weapon Ever Built. A New Report Says It Can Do Its Full Job Just 25% of the Time

Uncategorized

A Soviet spacecraft built in 1972 to land on Venus finally made its landing 53 years later, on 10 May 2025 — except it came down on Earth, carried through a fiery reentry intact by the same titanium shell its engineers had built to survive the hottest planet in the solar system.