19FortyFive — Defense, National Security and Military Analysis

An artist's conception of the X-43A Hypersonic Experimental Vehicle, or "Hyper-X" in flight. The X-43A was developed to flight test a dual-mode ramjet/scramjet propulsion system at speeds from Mach 7 up to Mach 10 (7 to 10 times the speed of sound, which varies with temperature and altitude).

Aerospace & Defense

NASA Spent About $230,000,000 Over 8 Years on the Mach 9.6 X-43A Hypersonic Scramjet. It Flew 3 Times, the First 1 Was Destroyed by Its Own Booster, and the Engine Ran for Roughly 11 Seconds.

NASA's Hyper-X program ran 8 years and cost roughly $230,000,000, and it produced exactly 3 flights of the X-43A. The first ended with the...

Caleb LarsonSeptember 8, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

General George Patton’s Quote on People Is Still the Greatest in US Army History 79 Years Later

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." General George S. Patton...

Isaac SeitzSeptember 8, 2026

Vega Space Probe 19FortyFive Photo From Smithsonian Taken on June 30 2026

Space and Technology

In June 1985 Russia Flew 2 Balloons Through the Sulfuric Acid Clouds of Venus. They Rode 150-Mile-an-Hour Winds for 46 Hours and 11,600 Kilometers, and No Balloon Has Flown on Another Planet Since.

In June 1985 the Soviet Union released 2 balloons into the clouds of Venus. Each was 3.4 meters across, hung a 7-kilogram gondola from...

Harry J. KazianisSeptember 8, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

The US Navy Built 188 Lockheed S-3 Viking Aircraft to Hunt and Kill Soviet Submarines from Aircraft Carriers. Not 1 of Them Ever Sank a Submarine. They Destroyed Iraqi Missile Sites and Coastal Radars Instead.

Lockheed built 188 S-3 Vikings for one job: finding and killing Soviet submarines from the deck of an aircraft carrier. The Soviet Union collapsed...

Christian D. OrrSeptember 8, 2026

USS Washington Battleship Creative Commons Image

Aerospace & Defense

The US Navy Designed the 35,000-ton North Carolina-Class Battleships Around 12 14-Inch Guns in Quadruple Turrets. In 1937 It Threw Out the Design and Fitted 9 16-Inch Guns Instead.

Summary and Key Points: The US Navy built only 2 North Carolina-class battleships, and one of them holds a record no other battleship on...

Brent M. EastwoodSeptember 8, 2026

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

Iran Bet on Waiting Out the Midterms. It Misread the Calendar and Donald Trump

Aerospace & Defense

Occupying Iran Would Take 500,000 Troops. The Entire Active US Army Is Smaller

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

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

Forget the F-35 or China’s J-20: Japan Is Turning 98 F-15J Eagles Into ‘Super Interceptors’ Carrying JASSM-ER

Aerospace & Defense

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

Aerospace & Defense

The 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

On September 13, 1985, an F-15 Fighter Shot Down a Satellite at 345 Miles Up — 42 Years Later, No Aircraft Has Done It Again

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

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

The Embassy

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

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

NASA Spent About $230,000,000 Over 8 Years on the Mach 9.6 X-43A Hypersonic Scramjet. It Flew 3 Times, the First 1 Was Destroyed by Its Own Booster, and the Engine Ran for Roughly 11 Seconds.

Aerospace & Defense

General George Patton’s Quote on People Is Still the Greatest in US Army History 79 Years Later

Space and Technology

In June 1985 Russia Flew 2 Balloons Through the Sulfuric Acid Clouds of Venus. They Rode 150-Mile-an-Hour Winds for 46 Hours and 11,600 Kilometers, and No Balloon Has Flown on Another Planet Since.

Aerospace & Defense

The US Navy Built 188 Lockheed S-3 Viking Aircraft to Hunt and Kill Soviet Submarines from Aircraft Carriers. Not 1 of Them Ever Sank a Submarine. They Destroyed Iraqi Missile Sites and Coastal Radars Instead.

Aerospace & Defense

The US Navy Designed the 35,000-ton North Carolina-Class Battleships Around 12 14-Inch Guns in Quadruple Turrets. In 1937 It Threw Out the Design and Fitted 9 16-Inch Guns Instead.

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.