19FortyFive — Defense, National Security and Military Analysis

Aerospace & Defense

Raid the Museum: The NASA SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3 Comeback Is Going to Need What Looks Like a Minor Miracle to Get Off the Ground

Its cavities may be packed with sand and water, its engines have sat for 30-plus years, and the spare parts were disposed of in...

Caleb Larson5 days ago

SR-71 Blackbird on the Tarmac Creative Commons Photo

Aerospace & Defense

NASA Has Made Job Offers to 2 Retired Engineers in Their Seventies to Help Restart an SR-71 Blackbird. The Aircraft Last Flew on October 9, 1999, and Nobody Has Turned Its Engines Since.

Tail number 844 flew the last SR-71 sortie anyone has flown, then went on a stand near the Armstrong Flight Research Center and stayed...

Brandon Weichert5 days ago

Aerospace & Defense

The S-3 Viking: The Submarine-Hunting “War Hoover” Has No Equal Today on a US Navy Nuclear Aircraft Carrier

The S-3 Viking had ten hours of endurance, could make better than 500 mph at 25,000 feet, and carried a four-man crew with sonobuoys...

Sean Spoonts5 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

ATLANTIC OCEAN (Feb 04, 2012) Aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65). Enterprise is underway participating in exercise Bold Alligator 2012. Bold Alligator 2012, the largest naval amphibious exercise in the past 10 years, represents the Navy and Marine Corps' revitalization of the full range of amphibious operations. The exercise focuses on today's fight with today's forces, while showcasing the advantages of seabasing. This exercise will take place 30 Jan - 12 Feb, 2012 afloat and ashore in and around Virginia and North Carolina. (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Nick C. Scott)

Aerospace & Defense

Building Aircraft Carrier USS Enterprise Took Less Than 4 Years. Taking Her Apart Will Take Nearly 18. The US Navy Spent $902,000,000 Just Making Her Safe Enough to Sit at a Pier, and Another $111,000,000 Keeping Her There While It Decided What to Do.

GAO warned in 2018 that the job was closer to decommissioning a nuclear power plant than breaking up a ship, priced the public-shipyard route...

Steve Balestrieri5 days ago

Aerospace & Defense

A 25% Chance: NASA’s Former SR-71 Blackbird Engineer on Whether Tail 844 Flies Again

Aerospace & Defense

100,000-Ton US Navy Nuclear Aircraft Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford Has a ‘Math Problem’ That Can’t Seem to Be Solved

Aerospace & Defense

The Case Against Resurrecting the Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird: Lost Expertise, Destroyed Spares and Cheaper Unmanned Alternatives

The Embassy

The Case for Economic Pressure Over Nuclear Diplomacy With Iran

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

A Mach 3 US Air Force SR-71 Blackbird Buzzed Sacramento’s Control Tower in Afterburner. The Tower Wanted More

Aerospace & Defense

100,000-Ton Wait: It Took 15 Long Years for the US Navy to Almost Get a New Ford-Class Nuclear Aircraft Carrier

Aerospace & Defense

US Navy 100,000-Ton Nimitz-Class and Ford-Class Nuclear Aircraft Carriers Have 1 Clear Weakness That Can’t Ever Be Fixed

Aerospace & Defense

A Lockheed Mach 3.2 YF-12 Spy Plane Locked Onto a Target Drone From More Than 100 Miles Away and 14.2 Miles Below It, Then Killed It With a Missile Fired From 53 Miles. That Was 1966, and Only 3 of These Aircraft Were Ever Built.

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

9/11’s Forgotten Lesson

The Embassy

Russia and NATO’s Gray Zone Actions Could Spark a War No One Wants

The Embassy

Putin’s Giant Gamble: Another Ukraine War Mobilization Is Filled with Unknown Risks and An Angry Russia Simmering

The Embassy

‘Pivotal Meeting’: Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Donald Trump Will Meet Today. Here’s What’s on the Agenda to Try and End the Ukraine War

Hermit Kingdom

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

Hermit Kingdom

North Korea’s Fingerprints Are All Over Iran’s War Against America

Aerospace & Defense

Raid the Museum: The NASA SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3 Comeback Is Going to Need What Looks Like a Minor Miracle to Get Off the Ground

Aerospace & Defense

NASA Has Made Job Offers to 2 Retired Engineers in Their Seventies to Help Restart an SR-71 Blackbird. The Aircraft Last Flew on October 9, 1999, and Nobody Has Turned Its Engines Since.

Aerospace & Defense

The S-3 Viking: The Submarine-Hunting “War Hoover” Has No Equal Today on a US Navy Nuclear Aircraft Carrier

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

Building Aircraft Carrier USS Enterprise Took Less Than 4 Years. Taking Her Apart Will Take Nearly 18. The US Navy Spent $902,000,000 Just Making Her Safe Enough to Sit at a Pier, and Another $111,000,000 Keeping Her There While It Decided What to Do.

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

Boeing Spent $67,000,000 of Its Own Money Building YF-118G Bird of Prey Stealth Aircraft. It Flew 38 Times on Landing Gear From a Beech King Air and an Ejection Seat From a Harrier.

Aerospace & Defense

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird’s Pratt & Whitney J58 Engines Ran at Full Afterburner for Hours at a Time With Exhaust Temperatures Near 3,400 Degrees. At Mach 3.2 Cruise, Roughly 80 Percent of the Thrust Came From the Inlet, Not the Engine.

Aerospace & Defense

$850,000,000 Australian Submarine ‘Sank’ $5,500,000,000 US Navy Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier By Evading US, Japanese, Canadian, Chilean, Korean, and British Forces — 6 Navies — and Photographed the Supercarrier

Aerospace & Defense

A Canadian Oberon-Class Diesel Submarine Built in the 1960s Worth About $80,000,000 Slipped Past an Entire US Navy Carrier Group. The Umpire Declared the $5,500,000,000 Nuclear Aircraft Carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Sunk.