Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
As the historic location of Japan’s surrender in World War II, the USS Missouri battleship needs little introduction. That defining moment and the ship...
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China's aerospace industry did something that looked impossible 20 years ago: it built one of the world's largest stealth-fighter fleets. But the J-20's greatest...
The Iran war was as close to a pure air campaign as America has fought, and James Holmes — who holds the J.C. Wylie...
Trump calling Taiwan a "bargaining chip" is the headline, but Denny Roy argues the deeper story is structural: a Chinese military that makes intervention...
The Navy finally settled it: the new battleship will be nuclear-powered — and that single decision put the $17 billion Trump-class in direct competition...
The second Trump administration is reviewing America's military footprint in Europe, and the worst-case outcome is a full withdrawal. Andrew Michta argues that would...
The US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding is being judged on whether it cools tensions in the Persian Gulf. Strategic-studies scholar Andrew Michta argues that's the...
Iran: A War at the Wrong Time and Place: As the war in Iran continues and analysts debate how long it will last and...
Strategic expert Andrew A. Michta explores how Russia is capitalizing on the Iran War to consolidate gains in Europe. With U.S. resources drained and...
In October 2001, Boeing lost the largest fighter program ever conceived and nearly lost the fighter business with it. For twenty-four years the company...
The longest U.S. Navy aircraft carrier deployment since Vietnam left marks — and the yards she enters finish carrier work 113 days late on...
Bill Sweetman spent a career prying open America's most classified aircraft programs. Now he's pointing at the F-35's next radar — a system whose...
Boeing built two jets to answer two different questions — one flew clean, and one never landed vertically at full weight. Here is the...
Iran is moving to charge ships for passing through the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway that carries a fifth of the world's oil...
A film celebrating ten years of China's Y-20 transport slipped in something no other country has shown on official camera: a sixth-generation fighter refueling...
A decade after it surfaced, China's H-20 has no flying prototype and no production line. The reasons are industrial, not financial: an intercontinental flying...
A new 1.5-gigawatt project in Utah will use five 300-megawatt Holtec small modular reactors rather than two massive conventional ones, part of a broader...
For weeks, an August 18 deadline loomed: the day a U.S.–Iran understanding expired, and, by President Trump's own warning, the day fighting over the...
The diplomatic center of gravity in the Middle East has decisively shifted to Riyadh. On June 23, 2026, talks between Iranian Majlis Speaker Mohammed...
Germany still must address a readiness issue: large portions of the army are not considered fully combat-ready, with some readiness estimates for land forces...
Vice President JD Vance has hailed his Switzerland negotiations over Iran's nuclear program as diplomatic progress. Middle East Forum scholar Dr. Michael Rubin argues...
The KN-23, North Korea's version the Russian Iskander missile, showed up to fight in the Ukraine war. And it isn't the same platform as...
On May 21, 2025, a brand-new North Korean destroyer rolled over and partially capsized at its own launch ceremony — with Kim Jong Un...
Fake Russian IDs, Orders Never to Be Captured, and 50% Casualties: Inside North Korea’s Secret War in Ukraine The Russian Army has sustained nearly...
Summary and Key Points: Dr. Bruce E. Bechtol Jr., a political science professor and proliferation expert, evaluates the strategic partnership between Iran and North...
As the historic location of Japan’s surrender in World War II, the USS Missouri battleship needs little introduction. That defining moment and the ship...
The Republican party seems to be fractured into two distinct sects: those who continue to stand by Donald Trump no matter what the costs,...
![Image: Creative Commons - M1917 Revolver issued by US Army during WWI to Charles H. Houston - left DATE: January 1918 Colt Model 1917 Revolver .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) No 22-883 issued by the United States Army to Charles Hamilton Houston during World War I. The gun is comprised of metal with wood applied to the handle. The revolver has a six-round cylinder that is semi-removable so bullets can be loaded. There are multiple manufacturer's notes throughout the barrel and frame. On the left of the barrel, text reads [COLT D.A. 45]. On top of the barrel is the manufacture's information, [COLT’S PT FA MFG CO. HARTFORD, CT U.S.A. / PAT’D AUG. 5, 1884 JUNE 6 1900 JULY 4 1905]. On the left side of the frame, at the top next to the hammer are the letters [GHS] in a circle. Below the hammer on the frame is a horse standing on its hind legs with two spears. The bottom of the grip has a circular hinge with a cylinder shaped metal. Surrounding the hinge are the words, [U.S. / ARMY / MODEL / 1917 / N° / 22 / 883]. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Charles Hamilton Houston, Jr. and Dr. Rosemary Jagus Object number: 2018.59.3](https://www.19fortyfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/M1917-Revolver-600x337.jpg)
![Image: Creative Commons - M1917 Revolver issued by US Army during WWI to Charles H. Houston - left DATE: January 1918 Colt Model 1917 Revolver .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) No 22-883 issued by the United States Army to Charles Hamilton Houston during World War I. The gun is comprised of metal with wood applied to the handle. The revolver has a six-round cylinder that is semi-removable so bullets can be loaded. There are multiple manufacturer's notes throughout the barrel and frame. On the left of the barrel, text reads [COLT D.A. 45]. On top of the barrel is the manufacture's information, [COLT’S PT FA MFG CO. HARTFORD, CT U.S.A. / PAT’D AUG. 5, 1884 JUNE 6 1900 JULY 4 1905]. On the left side of the frame, at the top next to the hammer are the letters [GHS] in a circle. Below the hammer on the frame is a horse standing on its hind legs with two spears. The bottom of the grip has a circular hinge with a cylinder shaped metal. Surrounding the hinge are the words, [U.S. / ARMY / MODEL / 1917 / N° / 22 / 883]. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Charles Hamilton Houston, Jr. and Dr. Rosemary Jagus Object number: 2018.59.3](https://www.19fortyfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/M1917-Revolver-100x100.jpg)
Colt’s version of the M1917 was basically an updated version – to accommodate the .45 ACP cartridge, that is – of their already-extant (since...
Ending the war based on a neutral Ukraine without express security guarantees from NATO would clearly be an unpleasant outcome for Kyiv’s leaders, but...
Last September, this reporter wrote an article on the unfortunate story of the WWII British battleship HMS Prince of Wales, whose 10 December 1941...
