19FortyFive — Defense, National Security and Military Analysis

Neptune Anti-Ship Missile. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

Ukraine’s Fire Point Is Building 2 Ballistic Missiles of Its Own. The FP-7 Reaches 200 Kilometres With a 150-Kilogram Warhead. The Longer-Ranged FP-9 Could Strike 600 to 800 Kilometres Into Russia Within Minutes.

Fabian Hoffmann of the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies put a number on it: around 50 FP-9s a month, accurate enough to hit high-value...

Caleb LarsonSeptember 14, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

The Youngest B-52 Was Built in 1962 and the US Air Force Plans to Fly It Until 2050 — 88 Years in Service. In Early March 2026, B-52s Struck Ballistic Missile Sites Inside Iran for the First Time.

The B-52H is being re-engined with Rolls-Royce F130s for a 30 percent fuel efficiency gain, and the old AN/APQ-166 is being replaced with an...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 14, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

A Russian Attack Drone Struck a Locomotive at Yahodyn on 14 September, 1.2 Miles From the Polish Border, Minutes After a Train Carrying Boris Johnson, Carl Bildt and EU Security Advisers Had Passed Through. Passengers on the Train That Was Hit Got About 15 Minutes of Warning.

Locomotives have become a favored Russian target. Ukrzaliznytsia reports 492 locomotives destroyed or damaged and 249 rail carriages lost since the full-scale invasion began....

Reuben JohnsonSeptember 14, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

Sorry, F-35: South Korea Flew 6 KF-21 Boramae Prototypes on Nearly 1,600 Sorties Over 42 Months and Declared Development Complete in July 2026.

Forty KF-21 Block I aircraft are contracted for delivery by 2028, with 80 Block II to follow, at about $83 million and $112 million...

Brandon WeichertSeptember 14, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

Russia Landed Venera 12 on Venus on December 21, 1978 and Venera 11 on December 25. Both Survived 870 Degrees Fahrenheit and Roughly 90 Atmospheres of Pressure. Neither Returned a Single Photograph, Because the Lens Caps Failed to Eject on Both.

The descent through Venus's atmosphere would have wrecked exposed optics — sulfuric acid clouds, carbon dioxide, and enormous swings in pressure and temperature —...

Harrison KassSeptember 14, 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

Ukraine’s Fire Point Is Building 2 Ballistic Missiles of Its Own. The FP-7 Reaches 200 Kilometres With a 150-Kilogram Warhead. The Longer-Ranged FP-9 Could Strike 600 to 800 Kilometres Into Russia Within Minutes.

Aerospace & Defense

The Youngest B-52 Was Built in 1962 and the US Air Force Plans to Fly It Until 2050 — 88 Years in Service. In Early March 2026, B-52s Struck Ballistic Missile Sites Inside Iran for the First Time.

Aerospace & Defense

A Russian Attack Drone Struck a Locomotive at Yahodyn on 14 September, 1.2 Miles From the Polish Border, Minutes After a Train Carrying Boris Johnson, Carl Bildt and EU Security Advisers Had Passed Through. Passengers on the Train That Was Hit Got About 15 Minutes of Warning.

Aerospace & Defense

Sorry, F-35: South Korea Flew 6 KF-21 Boramae Prototypes on Nearly 1,600 Sorties Over 42 Months and Declared Development Complete in July 2026.

Aerospace & Defense

Russia Landed Venera 12 on Venus on December 21, 1978 and Venera 11 on December 25. Both Survived 870 Degrees Fahrenheit and Roughly 90 Atmospheres of Pressure. Neither Returned a Single Photograph, Because the Lens Caps Failed to Eject on Both.

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.