19FortyFive — Defense, National Security and Military Analysis

Nuclear submarine HMS Vanguard arrives back at HM Naval Base Clyde, Faslane, Scotland following a patrol. Image: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

Contractors Glued Bolt Heads On Inside Britain’s Nuclear Submarine HMS Vanguard. Seven of 3,000 Bolts, and the Logbook Never Mentioned Glue.

Around seven of 3,000 bolts were involved, securing pipe insulation, not the reactor, and the ship's logbook recorded a procedural issue with no mention...

Georgia GilholySeptember 16, 2026

The Embassy

‘They’re Playing With Fire’: A Russian Drone Struck 1.2 Miles From NATO’s Border, Beside a Train Carrying Former U.S. Intelligence Officials.

On the morning of September 14, a Russian drone exploded beside a train carrying delegates home from the Yalta European Strategy summit, about 1.2...

Reuben JohnsonSeptember 16, 2026

Venera 13 Venus Probe Creative Commons Photo

Aerospace & Defense

Venus Takes 243 Earth Days to Turn Once on Its Axis and 224.7 Earth Days to Circle the Sun. Its Equator Creeps Along at About 4 Miles per Hour — Slower Than a Person Walks — While the Planet Itself Races Through Space at 78,000 Miles per Hour.

Venus is the closest thing to a twin Earth has, and almost nothing about how it moves makes sense. It turns once every 243...

Harrison KassSeptember 16, 2026

A Croatian Dassault Rafales taxis before the first-ever dual take-off with U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons during Exercise Fighting Wyvern 25-01 at Pleso Air Base, Croatia, March 12, 2025. Exercise Fighting Wyvern was executed to prepare U.S. forces and Allies to combat future threats to the European theater. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Senior Airman Brooke Wise)

Aerospace & Defense

The Eurofighter Typhoon and the Dassault Rafale Fighters Were Never Supposed to Have Been Created

Britain wanted a long-range interceptor to replace the Jaguar. West Germany was drawing a delta-canard. France wanted a lightweight multi-role aircraft that could also...

Isaac SeitzSeptember 16, 2026

Super Redhawk Alaskan edition. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Ruger Super Redhawk Weighs 53 Ounces Empty and Close to 60 With an Optic Mounted. It Has Been Chambered in 6 Cartridges From .22 Hornet to .454 Casull, and Ruger Built It in 1987 Specifically So It Would Not Beat Itself Apart.

The Super Redhawk borrows its trigger mechanism and grips from the GP100 and scales up everything else — extra steel where the frame takes...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 16, 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

Army Texas Quote of the Day By George Patton: “Give me an army of West Point graduates, and I’ll win a battle; give me an army of Texas Aggies, and I’ll win a war.”

Aerospace & Defense

Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird’s Ceiling Was Thought to Be 85,000 Feet. In 1965, Test Pilot Flew It Past 90,000, Felt It Wobble, Lost an Engine and Landed on One at Edwards

Aerospace & Defense

Getting to Mercury Is Harder Than Getting to the Outer Planets. Earth Is Already Moving 67,000 Miles an Hour Sideways and a Spacecraft Has to Shed Most of That to Fall Inward. Mariner 10 Solved It by Flying 3,600 Miles Over Venus and Letting the Planet Slow It Down.

Aerospace & Defense

British Sailors in Submarines 51 Feet Long Slipped Under the Nets Around the 40,000-Ton Battleship Tirpitz and Left Charges on the Seabed Beneath Her. The Blast Lifted the Ship Out of the Water and Put Her Out of the War for About 6 Months.

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

Contractors Glued Bolt Heads On Inside Britain’s Nuclear Submarine HMS Vanguard. Seven of 3,000 Bolts, and the Logbook Never Mentioned Glue.

The Embassy

‘They’re Playing With Fire’: A Russian Drone Struck 1.2 Miles From NATO’s Border, Beside a Train Carrying Former U.S. Intelligence Officials.

Aerospace & Defense

Venus Takes 243 Earth Days to Turn Once on Its Axis and 224.7 Earth Days to Circle the Sun. Its Equator Creeps Along at About 4 Miles per Hour — Slower Than a Person Walks — While the Planet Itself Races Through Space at 78,000 Miles per Hour.

Aerospace & Defense

The Eurofighter Typhoon and the Dassault Rafale Fighters Were Never Supposed to Have Been Created

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Ruger Super Redhawk Weighs 53 Ounces Empty and Close to 60 With an Optic Mounted. It Has Been Chambered in 6 Cartridges From .22 Hornet to .454 Casull, and Ruger Built It in 1987 Specifically So It Would Not Beat Itself Apart.

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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.