19FortyFive — Defense, National Security and Military Analysis

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

Sweden’s Gotland-Class Submarine Proved Small AIP Boats Could Terrify Big Navies

Sweden didn't build the Gotland class to chase aircraft carriers across oceans. It built three small, quiet submarines for the Baltic — and in...

Harry J. KazianisJune 30, 2026

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

China Says Japanese Fighters Ran Simulated Attacks on Its Aircraft Carrier in the Pacific: 40-Day Liaoning Deployment Ends in Fury

China's only training aircraft carrier spent 40 days in the Pacific, and Beijing came home furious — accusing Japanese fighters of simulated attack runs...

Isaac SeitzJune 30, 2026

U.S. Soldiers assigned to 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division fire an M1 Abrams main battle tank at an enemy target during Rotation 25-02 at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif., Nov. 07, 2024. Rotations at the National Training Center ensure Army Brigade Combat Teams remain versatile, responsive, and consistently available for current and future contingencies. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Casey Auman, Operations Group, National Training Center).

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

Taiwan Just Took Delivery of $1.29 Billion in M1 Abrams Tanks: Why Analysts Call the 70-Ton Machines “Dead Weight” Against Drones

Taiwan just received the last of 108 American Abrams tanks, closing a $1.29 billion deal — and a growing chorus of analysts says the...

Steve BalestrieriJune 30, 2026

Space Shuttle Atlantis from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Image Taken by 19FortyFive.com on 6/28/2026.

Space and Technology

The Space Shuttle was not really a spaceplane but an unpowered glider with a single shot at landing — it hit the atmosphere at 25 times the speed of sound, flew so poorly that astronauts called it a flying brick, and dropped toward the runway on a slope seven times steeper than an airliner’s, with no chance of a second try.

For all its power at launch, the Space Shuttle came home as something far humbler: an unpowered glider. Once its main engines shut down...

Brandon WeichertJune 30, 2026

Space and Technology

The Saturn V remains the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, so violent at liftoff that its first launch shattered ceiling tiles in a control room three miles away — and more than half a century after it carried astronauts to the Moon, nothing humanity has built has matched it.

19FortyFive recently went to the Apollo/Saturn V Center at Kennedy Space Center for a firsthand look at the most powerful machine humanity has ever...

Brandon WeichertJune 30, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

Germany’s Great Military Reboot Is Just Getting Started

Aerospace & Defense

There Is No Such Thing as a ‘Black Hole’ Kilo-Class Submarine: A US Navy Anti-Submarine Operator Had ‘No Respect’ For the Russian Sub

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

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

The US Air Force Wants 100 Northrop Grumman B-21 Raiders at $700 Million Each. It Probably Needs 300 Stealth Bombers

Aerospace & Defense

‘Saturation Strike’: F-16 Fighters Used Swarm Tactics to ‘Destroy’ A US Air Force F-35 Stealth In a Dogfighting Drill

Aerospace & Defense

82 Years Later, General George Patton’s Best Army Line Is Still the Greatest Military Quote in Armed Forces History

Aerospace & Defense

Air Force 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.

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

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

Sweden’s Gotland-Class Submarine Proved Small AIP Boats Could Terrify Big Navies

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

China Says Japanese Fighters Ran Simulated Attacks on Its Aircraft Carrier in the Pacific: 40-Day Liaoning Deployment Ends in Fury

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

Taiwan Just Took Delivery of $1.29 Billion in M1 Abrams Tanks: Why Analysts Call the 70-Ton Machines “Dead Weight” Against Drones

Space and Technology

Space and Technology

The Saturn V remains the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, so violent at liftoff that its first launch shattered ceiling tiles in a control room three miles away — and more than half a century after it carried astronauts to the Moon, nothing humanity has built has matched it.

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

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

81 Years Ago, Army General George Patton’s Advice on History Is Still One of the Greatest Military Quotes in Armed Forces History

Aerospace & Defense

82 Years Later, General George Patton’s Best US Army Line Is Still the Greatest Military Quote in Armed Forces History

Aerospace & Defense

Canada Finalized an Agreement to Buy 88 Lockheed Martin F-35A Fighter Jets Back in January 2023. Almost 18 Months Into a Review Ordered by Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ottawa Is Committed to Only 16 of Them — and the First Ones Still Arrive This Year.