19FortyFive — Defense, National Security and Military Analysis

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

A Norwegian soldier of the Telemark Battalion, fires the HK416 with blank rounds toward a simulated target at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, June 13, 2020. Coalition forces’ training is used to enhance base defense operations to provide better security in Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Derek Mustard)

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: HK Rates the 416’s Cold-Hammer-Forged Barrel at a Minimum of 15,000 Rounds. Some Users Report Passing 40,000. Tier-One Units Shoot More in a Month Than Line Units Do in a Year.

HK borrowed the gas system from the G36: a short-stroke piston drives an operating rod into the carrier so fouling never reaches the action....

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 28, 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

F-111B Was Supposed to Be a Navy Aircraft Carrier Fighter. It Exceeded 80,000 Pounds, Needed a Wingspan 7 Feet Wider Than the Air Force Version Just to Slow Down Enough to Land, and the Navy Walked Away in May 1968.

Aerospace & Defense

100,000 Tons, 70 Aircraft, 1 Target: The US Navy Has No Nuclear Aircraft Carrier Replacement Plan

Aerospace & Defense

F-14D Tomcat Retirement Left 100,000-Ton US Navy Nuclear Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carriers with a ‘Math Problem’ That Can’t Seem to Be Solved

Aerospace & Defense

4 Missiles Failed. A US Air Force F-4 Phantom Killed a MiG-19 With 300 Cannon Rounds at Mach 1.2

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

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.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: HK Rates the 416’s Cold-Hammer-Forged Barrel at a Minimum of 15,000 Rounds. Some Users Report Passing 40,000. Tier-One Units Shoot More in a Month Than Line Units Do in a Year.

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.