Blog - 19FortyFive

Aerospace & Defense

An SR-71 Blackbird Left Andrews Air Force Base in 1984 With Its Own Afterburner Blowing 1,500-Degree Flame Into the Wing. The Pilot Dumped 14,000 Pounds of Fuel to Get the Weight Off and Set 13 Acres of Maryland on Fire.

The right SR-71 afterburner attachment section blew out on a low pass over the runway, driving flame into the nacelle and peeling titanium off...

Sean SpoontsSeptember 28, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: NATO Asked for a Weapon to Arm Truck Drivers and Artillerymen Who Would Probably Never Fire It. It Ended Up With DEVGRU, GSG 9, GIGN and the US Capitol Police.

The 1989 requirement was to defeat the CRISAT target — 1.6mm of titanium backed by twenty layers of Kevlar — which no pistol cartridge...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 28, 2026

Four F-117 Nighthawks fly in formation during a sortie over the Antelope Valley recently. After 25 years of history, the aircraft is set to retire soon. As the Air Force's first stealth fighter, the F-117 is capable of performing reconnaissance missions and bombing critical targets, all without the enemy's knowledge. (Photo by Bobbi Zapka)

Aerospace & Defense

Lockheed Wanted to Put the F-117 Nighthawk on US Navy Aircraft Carriers. It Proposed 255 of Them at $70,000,000 Each — Almost $17,900,000,000 — and Congress Set Aside $175,000,000 Just to Study Whether It Would Work. The Navy Said No Twice.

The Navy had just lost the A-12 Avenger II and had nothing to replace the aging A-6 Intruder, so Lockheed pitched the F-117 stealth...

Brandon WeichertSeptember 28, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

The US Navy Planned to Deliver the Aircraft Carrier USS John F. Kennedy in July 2025. She Is Now Due in March 2027. The 20-Month Slip Came Down to Arresting Gear Certification and the Weapons Elevators — the Same 2 Systems That Held Up USS Gerald R. Ford.

Ford was built with thinner deck and bulkhead plates to save weight, and the steel turned out to be harder to work with —...

Caleb LarsonSeptember 28, 2026

SR-71 Blackbird Above the Earth Creative Commons Artist Image

Aerospace & Defense

A Cessna Asked Los Angeles Center for a Ground Speed Check and Got 90 Knots. A Beechcraft Got 125. A Navy F/A-18 Hornet Got 620. Then an SR-71 Blackbird Asked, and the Controller Came Back With 1,842 Knots — About 2,120 Miles Per Hour.

A Cessna got 90 knots. A Beechcraft got 125. Then an F/A-18 out of NAS Lemoore came on the frequency and got 620, which...

Harrison KassSeptember 28, 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

Russia Built the ‘Black Hole’ Kilo-Class Submarine as a Stopgap Until the Lada-Class Was Ready. The Stopgap Became One of Russia’s Most Important Submarines and Now Fires Kalibr Missiles at Ukraine

Aerospace & Defense

The Navy Built 2 Aircraft Carriers That Flew. The 785-Foot Airships USS Akron and USS Macon Carried Biplane Fighters Inside Their Hulls, and Within 4 Years Both Were on the Ocean Floor

Aerospace & Defense

German Eurofighter Pilots Scored Mock Kills on US Air Force F-22 Raptors Over Alaska in 2012, Then Put Raptor Decals on Their Jets and Said They Had ‘Raptor Salad for Lunch’

Aerospace & Defense

Soviet Titanium Papa-Class Submarine K-222 Hit 44.7 Knots Underwater in 1970, Still the Record. At That Speed She Was So Loud She Gave Herself Away, and the Stress Cracked Her Hull

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

A Warning to the US Military: Iran Is Fortifying Its Nuclear Sites and Borders and Signaling It Will Hit Back Across the Region

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

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

An SR-71 Blackbird Left Andrews Air Force Base in 1984 With Its Own Afterburner Blowing 1,500-Degree Flame Into the Wing. The Pilot Dumped 14,000 Pounds of Fuel to Get the Weight Off and Set 13 Acres of Maryland on Fire.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: NATO Asked for a Weapon to Arm Truck Drivers and Artillerymen Who Would Probably Never Fire It. It Ended Up With DEVGRU, GSG 9, GIGN and the US Capitol Police.

Aerospace & Defense

Lockheed Wanted to Put the F-117 Nighthawk on US Navy Aircraft Carriers. It Proposed 255 of Them at $70,000,000 Each — Almost $17,900,000,000 — and Congress Set Aside $175,000,000 Just to Study Whether It Would Work. The Navy Said No Twice.

Aerospace & Defense

The US Navy Planned to Deliver the Aircraft Carrier USS John F. Kennedy in July 2025. She Is Now Due in March 2027. The 20-Month Slip Came Down to Arresting Gear Certification and the Weapons Elevators — the Same 2 Systems That Held Up USS Gerald R. Ford.

Aerospace & Defense

A Cessna Asked Los Angeles Center for a Ground Speed Check and Got 90 Knots. A Beechcraft Got 125. A Navy F/A-18 Hornet Got 620. Then an SR-71 Blackbird Asked, and the Controller Came Back With 1,842 Knots — About 2,120 Miles Per Hour.

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