19FortyFive — Defense, National Security and Military Analysis

Kirov-Class Russian Navy Creative Commons Image

Aerospace & Defense

Russia Commissioned the Nuclear Battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov in 1986 and Sent Her to the Yard at Severodvinsk in 1999. She Came Out in 2025. She Has Now Spent Roughly Twice as Long Being Repaired as She Ever Spent in Service, at a Cost of About $5,000,000,000.

The old Kirov-class carried 20 P-700 Granit missiles. The rebuilt Admiral Nakhimov carries up to 80 in new vertical launch cells, compatible with the...

Isaac SeitzSeptember 14, 2026

Vanguard-class Submarine. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

Royal Navy Nuclear Missile Submarine HMS Vanguard Spent About 89 Months in Refit at Devonport. It Had Taken 83 Months to Build Her. Her 3 Sisters Averaged 42 Months for the Same Overhaul, and She Came Home in March From a 204-Day Patrol — the Longest in Royal Navy History.

Four boats is the minimum the Royal Navy's nuclear deterrence mission allows: one on patrol, one working up or returning, one in short maintenance,...

Harry J. KazianisSeptember 14, 2026

Smith & Wesson Model 500. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Smith & Wesson Model 500 Puts Out About 2,580 Foot-Pounds at the Muzzle and Kicks Roughly 3 Times Harder Than a .44 Magnum. It Is Not a Range Gun.

Herb Belin decided at the 2002 SHOT Show that Smith & Wesson should reclaim a title it had invented with the .357 and .44...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 14, 2026

Taurus Judge/Public Defender. Image: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Taurus Judge Fires .410 Shotgun Shells and .45 Colt Out of the Same 5-Round Cylinder, and It Is Legal Where a Sawed-Off Shotgun Is Not.

Taurus built the Judge around a slow 1:12 rifling twist — fast enough to stabilize a single .45 Colt bullet, gentle enough not to...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 14, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

Albert Einstein did not write the letter that started the Manhattan Project. Leo Szilard did. Einstein signed it, because his name was the only one Roosevelt would read.

Albert Einstein did not write the letter that started the Manhattan Project. Leo Szilard did. Einstein signed it, because his name was the only...

Stephen SilverSeptember 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

Russia Commissioned the Nuclear Battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov in 1986 and Sent Her to the Yard at Severodvinsk in 1999. She Came Out in 2025. She Has Now Spent Roughly Twice as Long Being Repaired as She Ever Spent in Service, at a Cost of About $5,000,000,000.

Aerospace & Defense

Royal Navy Nuclear Missile Submarine HMS Vanguard Spent About 89 Months in Refit at Devonport. It Had Taken 83 Months to Build Her. Her 3 Sisters Averaged 42 Months for the Same Overhaul, and She Came Home in March From a 204-Day Patrol — the Longest in Royal Navy History.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Smith & Wesson Model 500 Puts Out About 2,580 Foot-Pounds at the Muzzle and Kicks Roughly 3 Times Harder Than a .44 Magnum. It Is Not a Range Gun.

Aerospace & Defense

I Am a Retired US Army Special Forces NCO: The Taurus Judge Fires .410 Shotgun Shells and .45 Colt Out of the Same 5-Round Cylinder, and It Is Legal Where a Sawed-Off Shotgun Is Not.

Aerospace & Defense

Albert Einstein did not write the letter that started the Manhattan Project. Leo Szilard did. Einstein signed it, because his name was the only one Roosevelt would read.

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.