19FortyFive — Defense, National Security and Military Analysis

Aerospace & Defense

The US Navy Planned 32 Zumwalt-Class Destroyers and Built 3. Each One Cost About $10,600,000,000 With Development Included — More Than 7 Times the Original Estimate — and the 2 155mm Guns on Every Ship Were Never Fired Because Each Shell Reached $800,000.

Raytheon and the Navy are now examining whether all three ships can swap their AN/SPY-3 radars for the AN/SPY-6(V)3 already going into the rest...

Jack BuckbySeptember 12, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

Over 4,000 Missiles Failed to Hit a Single US Air Force Mach 3.2 SR-71 Blackbird. Speed Was the Only Way to Survive as It Had No Weapons to Fire Back

The SR-71 Blackbird did not dodge missiles so much as it made the intercept mathematically unaffordable, arriving and departing faster than the defense could...

Harry J. KazianisSeptember 12, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

The US Navy’s New $23,400,000,000 Nuclear Trump-Class Battleship Keeps Getting Called Obsolete Thanks to Drones. Chinese Military Experts Just Tested That Theory Out

The Trump-class lead ship, the 'battleship' USS Defiant, carries an estimated price tag of $23,400,000,000. Wang Lei's own conclusion is modest — artillery alone...

Isaac SeitzSeptember 12, 2026

Frederick the Great Portrait Creative Commons Photo

Aerospace & Defense

Move Over, Patton: 276 Years Ago, Frederick the Great’s Famous Line on Defense Is Still of the Greatest Military Quotes in Armed Forces History

Between the wars he rebuilt the state. He banned torture, pushed for a uniform national criminal code, loosened control of the press, allowed a...

Stephen SilverSeptember 12, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

45,000-Ton US Navy Battleship USS Alabama Was Towed Through the Panama Canal With 11 Inches of Clearance on Each Side. She Carried 9 16-Inch Guns Firing 2,700-Pound Shells, Earned 9 Battle Stars Across the Pacific, and Never Lost a Sailor to Enemy Fire.

At the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, battleship USS Alabama's SK-2 radar picked up incoming Japanese aircraft at roughly 190 miles...

Brandon WeichertSeptember 12, 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

The US Navy Planned 32 Zumwalt-Class Destroyers and Built 3. Each One Cost About $10,600,000,000 With Development Included — More Than 7 Times the Original Estimate — and the 2 155mm Guns on Every Ship Were Never Fired Because Each Shell Reached $800,000.

Aerospace & Defense

Over 4,000 Missiles Failed to Hit a Single US Air Force Mach 3.2 SR-71 Blackbird. Speed Was the Only Way to Survive as It Had No Weapons to Fire Back

Aerospace & Defense

The US Navy’s New $23,400,000,000 Nuclear Trump-Class Battleship Keeps Getting Called Obsolete Thanks to Drones. Chinese Military Experts Just Tested That Theory Out

Aerospace & Defense

Move Over, Patton: 276 Years Ago, Frederick the Great’s Famous Line on Defense Is Still of the Greatest Military Quotes in Armed Forces History

Aerospace & Defense

45,000-Ton US Navy Battleship USS Alabama Was Towed Through the Panama Canal With 11 Inches of Clearance on Each Side. She Carried 9 16-Inch Guns Firing 2,700-Pound Shells, Earned 9 Battle Stars Across the Pacific, and Never Lost a Sailor to Enemy Fire.

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.