19FortyFive — Defense, National Security and Military Analysis

Aerospace & Defense

France and Germany Launched FCAS in 2017 to Field a €100,000,000,000 Sixth-Generation Fighter Like the F-47 NGAD by 2040. They Killed the Aircraft in June 2026 Because Dassault and Airbus Could Never Agree on Who Was in Charge.

By March 2026 Dassault chief executive Eric Trappier had stopped being diplomatic on FCAS: "Airbus doesn't want to work with Dassault, full stop. I...

Jack BuckbySeptember 12, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

Sweden’s Saab JAS-39 Gripen E Costs About $4,700 to $9,900 per Flight Hour Against $38,000 to $42,000 for an F-35A and Up to $68,000 for an F-22 Raptor. It Has No Stealth Airframe, and a Handful of Conscripts With 1 Technician Can Rearm It on a Public Road in Under 20 Minutes.

Saab's JAS 39 Gripen answer to low observability is not shape. It is the Arexis suite — spherical electronic warfare coverage built on gallium...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 12, 2026

Venera 13 Venus Probe Creative Commons Photo

Aerospace & Defense

The Soviet Union Soft-Landed 8 Venera Spacecraft on the Surface of Venus Between 1970 and 1982, in 870 Degrees Fahrenheit and 92 Times Earth’s Atmospheric Pressure. The United States Has Never Landed on Venus Once.

Ninety-two bars is roughly what you feel 3,000 feet underwater. Soviet engineers answered it by building what were effectively robotic deep-sea vessels aimed at...

Harrison KassSeptember 12, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

The Eurofighter Typhoon First Flew in 1994 and Can Never Be Made Into the F-22 or F-35. In January 2026 the UK Signed a £453,500,000 Contract for 40 ECRS Mk2 Radars — About £11,300,000 Each — That Track Targets and Jam Enemy Sensors at the Same Time Across a 200-Degree Field of Regard.

The ECRS Mk2 folds radar, electronic warfare and jamming into one gallium-nitride array, which hands the Typhoon a Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses role...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 11, 2026

Apache AH-64 Helicopter Creative Commons Photo

Aerospace & Defense

The AH-64 Apache Helicopter Entered U.S. Army Service in the Mid-1980s, Purpose-Built to Destroy Soviet Tanks Pushing Through Central Europe. The Army Now Plans to Fly It Into the 2060s — Close to 80 Years of Service, About 70 of Them After the Soviet Union Stopped Existing.

The AN/APG-78 Longbow radar sits above the rotor mast, so an AH-64 Apache can stay hidden behind terrain with only the radar exposed. It...

Harrison KassSeptember 11, 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

France and Germany Launched FCAS in 2017 to Field a €100,000,000,000 Sixth-Generation Fighter Like the F-47 NGAD by 2040. They Killed the Aircraft in June 2026 Because Dassault and Airbus Could Never Agree on Who Was in Charge.

Aerospace & Defense

Sweden’s Saab JAS-39 Gripen E Costs About $4,700 to $9,900 per Flight Hour Against $38,000 to $42,000 for an F-35A and Up to $68,000 for an F-22 Raptor. It Has No Stealth Airframe, and a Handful of Conscripts With 1 Technician Can Rearm It on a Public Road in Under 20 Minutes.

Aerospace & Defense

The Soviet Union Soft-Landed 8 Venera Spacecraft on the Surface of Venus Between 1970 and 1982, in 870 Degrees Fahrenheit and 92 Times Earth’s Atmospheric Pressure. The United States Has Never Landed on Venus Once.

Aerospace & Defense

The Eurofighter Typhoon First Flew in 1994 and Can Never Be Made Into the F-22 or F-35. In January 2026 the UK Signed a £453,500,000 Contract for 40 ECRS Mk2 Radars — About £11,300,000 Each — That Track Targets and Jam Enemy Sensors at the Same Time Across a 200-Degree Field of Regard.

Aerospace & Defense

The AH-64 Apache Helicopter Entered U.S. Army Service in the Mid-1980s, Purpose-Built to Destroy Soviet Tanks Pushing Through Central Europe. The Army Now Plans to Fly It Into the 2060s — Close to 80 Years of Service, About 70 of Them After the Soviet Union Stopped Existing.

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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.