19FortyFive — Defense, National Security and Military Analysis

Aerospace & Defense

Russia unveiled the T-14 tank, the Su-57 stealth fighter, and the Su-75 Checkmate as world-beating weapons — a decade on, the count stands at a few dozen tanks, roughly 30 jets, and a Checkmate that has never flown, while it turns out cheap drones by the tens of thousands

The T-14 Armata, Su-57, and Su-75 Checkmate were unveiled as Russia's next-generation arsenal — a decade later the tank exists in dozens, the fighter...

Harry J. KazianisJuly 17, 2026

Cold War Nuclear Weapons Test. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

81 years ago today, a 21-kiloton test in the New Mexico desert gave humanity the power to destroy itself — and in the eight decades since, no two nuclear-armed powers have ever fought a full-scale conventional war against each other

On July 16, 1945, in a stretch of New Mexico desert called the Jornada del Muerto, scientists of the Manhattan Project detonated a plutonium...

Harrison KassJuly 16, 2026

Space and Technology

NASA’s first asteroid sample-return mission grabbed so much of Bennu that debris jammed the collector’s lid and the sample began leaking into space — engineers rushed to stow it early, and the capsule still landed in Utah in 2023 carrying 121.6 grams of 4.5-billion-year-old rock

OSIRIS-REx flew hundreds of millions of miles to do something NASA had never done: bring a piece of an asteroid home. The target was...

Harrison KassJuly 16, 2026

NASA Saturn V Rocket Exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image by Harry J. Kazianis.

Space and Technology

57 years ago today, three astronauts lifted off atop a Saturn V aimed so precisely at the Moon that the trip needed just two course corrections — and the route home was a “free return,” designed to carry them back without the engines ever firing

Fifty-seven years ago today, on July 16, 1969, three astronauts sat atop a Saturn V and lifted off on the most dangerous flight ever...

Brent M. EastwoodJuly 16, 2026

Kirov-Class Nuclear Russian Cruiser Creative Commons Photo

Aerospace & Defense

28,000 Ton Mistake: Russia’s Admiral Nakhimov Nuclear Battlecrusier Took Almost 30 Years to Refit Could Get ‘Schooled’ by Cheap Drones and Missiles

The Soviet Union built the Kirov-class to sink American carriers with sheer missile weight. Russia has one hull left, and after a decade of...

Brandon WeichertJuly 16, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

The Trap in an Air Ceasefire: Quiet Skies, and a Ukraine Ground War That Favors Russia

The Embassy

Trump Has Already Won the Iran War, a Twenty-Five-Year Army Veteran Argues — ‘the Enemy Gets a Vote’

Hermit Kingdom

Kim’s Arithmetic: Why North Korea Is Building Toward 300-500 Nuclear Warheads

Aerospace & Defense

Ukraine Has Declared War on Russia’s Shadow Fleet and Smashed 13 Vessels in the Last Two Days

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

The Eastern Flank Comes First: Inside NATO’s Post-Ankara Turn Toward Forward Defense and Industrial Muscle

Dr. Andrew A. Michta: Geostrategy

The Decisive Theater: North Korea and the Problem of Simultaneous War

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

Aerospace & Defense

Aerospace & Defense

The US Navy Still Needs Nimitz-Class Nuclear Aircraft Carrier USS Carl Vinson After 44 Years

Aerospace & Defense

The Navy Is Retiring Four Nuclear Submarines That Carry 154 Missiles Each. It Will Take 20 New Boats to Replace Them.

Aerospace & Defense

2,120 Days: That’s How Long US Navy Nuclear Aircraft Carrier USS George Washington Was ‘Trapped’ in the Yard

Aerospace & Defense

The US Navy’s Newest Nuclear Aircraft Carrier Is Running a Year Late. The Holdup Is the Arresting Gear and the Weapons Elevators. (

Trillions

Trillions - 19FortyFive

Iran Went After the Energy Routes and Russia Is Now Going After the Food, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Says

Trillions - 19FortyFive

Oil Traders Are Betting the Price Falls From Here — Even With the War and the Trouble at Hormuz Standing in the Way

Trillions - 19FortyFive

Russia’s Best Harvest in Years Is Grinding to a Halt — and Farmers Fear Kyiv’s Drones Could Cost It Ten Million Tons of Wheat

Trillions - 19FortyFive

Two Tankers Full of Saudi Oil Just Turned Around in the Red Sea — and the Houthis Didn’t Have to Fire a Single Shot

The Embassy

The Embassy

Laura Loomer Once Called Ukraine ‘Full of Nazi Apologists’ — This Week She Apologized and Met Zelensky

The Embassy

The Pentagon’s Count of America’s Iran War Dead Just Dropped Overnight — and the Explanations Don’t Match

The Embassy

More Americans Now Say This War Is Not Worth Fighting Than Ever Said So About Iraq Back in 2006

The Embassy

Iran Just Pulled Off a Strategic Master Stroke in the Strait of Hormuz and Now in the Red Sea — Trump Has a Problem

Hermit Kingdom

Hermit Kingdom

The Next Trump-North Korea Summit Starts on Kim’s Terms

Hermit Kingdom

North Korea’s New Destroyer Capsized at Its Own Launch. A Year Later It’s Heading Into Service Anyway

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

Aerospace & Defense

Russia unveiled the T-14 tank, the Su-57 stealth fighter, and the Su-75 Checkmate as world-beating weapons — a decade on, the count stands at a few dozen tanks, roughly 30 jets, and a Checkmate that has never flown, while it turns out cheap drones by the tens of thousands

Aerospace & Defense

81 years ago today, a 21-kiloton test in the New Mexico desert gave humanity the power to destroy itself — and in the eight decades since, no two nuclear-armed powers have ever fought a full-scale conventional war against each other

Space and Technology

NASA’s first asteroid sample-return mission grabbed so much of Bennu that debris jammed the collector’s lid and the sample began leaking into space — engineers rushed to stow it early, and the capsule still landed in Utah in 2023 carrying 121.6 grams of 4.5-billion-year-old rock

Space and Technology

57 years ago today, three astronauts lifted off atop a Saturn V aimed so precisely at the Moon that the trip needed just two course corrections — and the route home was a “free return,” designed to carry them back without the engines ever firing

Aerospace & Defense

28,000 Ton Mistake: Russia’s Admiral Nakhimov Nuclear Battlecrusier Took Almost 30 Years to Refit Could Get ‘Schooled’ by Cheap Drones and Missiles

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Aerospace & Defense

F-47 NGAD: Why Boeing’s Sixth-Generation Fighter Looks Nothing Like Experts Expected

Aerospace & Defense

We Visited What Some Say Is the ‘First Stealth Bomber’: Germany’s Horten Ho 229 Is Sitting in the Smithsonian

Aerospace & Defense

The U.S. Navy Built Its Last Battleship in 1944. Now It Wants 15 New Ones Armed With Hypersonics Instead of 16-Inch Guns

Aerospace & Defense

China Built Its First Tank From a Soviet Copy in 1959. Its Newest One Has an Empty Turret and a Smaller Gun — From the Same Factory

Space and Technology

Voyager 1 launched in 1977 on a four-year mission, and in November 2026, nearly half a century later, it will become the first object ever to reach one light-day from Earth — so distant that a signal now takes a full 24 hours to cross the emptiness back home