USSR Archives

Aerospace & Defense

Russia’s Mach 2 Su-57 Felon Stealth Fighter Was Never Built to Fight and Beat the US Air Force F-22 Raptor or the F-35

A former Air Force avionics technician says Russia’s Su-57 Felon would have been revolutionary in 1985. Brandon J. Weichert argues the critics are measuring...

Brandon WeichertOctober 10, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

The ‘Black Hole’ Kilo-Class Submarine Isn’t Reality: A US Navy Anti-Submarine Operator Had ‘No Respect’ For the Russian Sub

A former US Navy ASW operator says the Kilo-class ‘black hole’ hype was a joke. Quiet only at 3 knots, it has to snorkel...

Sean SpoontsOctober 9, 2026

Seawolf-class. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

A Los Angeles-Class Sub Tied to the Pier Was Louder Than a Seawolf at 20 Knots. 70 Times Quieter, It Dove Past 2,000 Feet to Hunt Typhoons Under Arctic Ice

A Los Angeles-class sub tied to the pier made more noise than a Seawolf at 20 knots. Built to hunt 48,000-ton Typhoons under Arctic...

Sean SpoontsOctober 7, 2026

An F-14D Tomcat pulls up after performing a fly-by past the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) as the ship operates in the Atlantic Ocean on June 19, 2006. DoD photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Miguel A. Contreras, U.S. Navy. (Released) PH2 CONTRERAS MIGUEL

Aerospace & Defense

F-14D Tomcat Retirement Left 100,000-Ton US Navy Nuclear Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carriers with a ‘Math Problem’ That Can’t Seem to Be Solved

'I used to have to fly the engines; now I fly the airplane,' one Tomcat pilot told museum docent Orrin Messinger, and a Grumman...

Christian D. OrrOctober 6, 2026

SR-71 Blackbird High in the Sky USAF Photo

Aerospace & Defense

A Mach 3 US Air Force SR-71 Blackbird Buzzed Sacramento’s Control Tower in Afterburner. The Tower Wanted More

Retired SR-71 pilot Maury Rosenberg told Aviation Geek Club the colonel asked whether any Air Force regulation banned approaches at Sacramento, then ordered one...

Brandon WeichertOctober 5, 2026

NASA SR-71 Blackbird Creative Commons NASA Photo

Aerospace & Defense

A Lockheed Mach 3.2 YF-12 Spy Plane Locked Onto a Target Drone From More Than 100 Miles Away and 14.2 Miles Below It, Then Killed It With a Missile Fired From 53 Miles. That Was 1966, and Only 3 of These Aircraft Were Ever Built.

Lockheed stripped the cameras out of a Blackbird, put a Hughes AN/ASG-18 fire control radar in the nose and three AIM-47 Falcons in internal...

Brandon WeichertOctober 5, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

The B-36 Had a 230-Foot Wingspan, 10 Engines and a 10,000-Mile Range, Survived 5 Attempts to Cancel It, and None of Nearly 400 Built Dropped a Bomb in Anger

Designed in 1941 to strike Europe from the Western Hemisphere if Britain fell, the B-36 was saved by Gen. Hap Arnold the day Hiroshima...

Brandon WeichertOctober 4, 2026

USS Iowa (BB-61) Fires a full broadside of nine 16/50 and six 5/38 guns during a target exercise near Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, 1 July 1984. Photographed by PHAN J. Alan Elliott. Note concussion effects on the water surface, and 16-inch gun barrels in varying degrees of recoil. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the the Department of Defense Still Media Collection.

Aerospace & Defense

Four US Navy battleships mothballed for decades came back in 1982 for $1.7 billion to answer a Soviet nuclear battlecruiser, one plan cut off an aft 16-inch turret for a Harrier flight deck, the Navy bolted on 32 Tomahawks and 16 Harpoons instead, and all four were gone by 1992

Reactivating USS New Jersey alone was estimated at $247 million in 1982, about $857 million today. The battleships got AN/SPS-49 radars, SLQ-32 electronic warfare...

Isaac SeitzOctober 4, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

Lockheed Drew Up an SR-71 Blackbird Firing 210-Kiloton Nuclear Missiles From 80,000 Feet at Mach 3.2, Range 500 Nautical Miles, and Half Would Have Missed

Ben Rich's paper reshaped the Blackbird's forward fuselage with blunter chines, a rounded underside and a longer nose for radar to fit the 14-foot...

Brandon WeichertOctober 4, 2026

MEDITERRANEAN SEA (July 20, 2017) The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) sails through the Mediterranean Sea in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. The ship and its carrier strike group are conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Zachary Wickline/Released)

Aerospace & Defense

Russia Was 40 Percent Done With a Nimitz-Class Style Aircraft Carrier That Might Have Been 94,000-Tons and Had 4 Nuclear Reactors When It Was Scrapped

Laid down at Mykolaiv in 1988 beside the future Liaoning, the 1,054-foot aircraft carrier Ulyanovsk had a 70%-complete hull by 1992 when Russia told...

Isaac SeitzOctober 1, 2026

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All posts tagged "USSR"

Aerospace & Defense

Russia’s Mach 2 Su-57 Felon Stealth Fighter Was Never Built to Fight and Beat the US Air Force F-22 Raptor or the F-35

Aerospace & Defense

The ‘Black Hole’ Kilo-Class Submarine Isn’t Reality: A US Navy Anti-Submarine Operator Had ‘No Respect’ For the Russian Sub

Aerospace & Defense

A Los Angeles-Class Sub Tied to the Pier Was Louder Than a Seawolf at 20 Knots. 70 Times Quieter, It Dove Past 2,000 Feet to Hunt Typhoons Under Arctic Ice

Aerospace & Defense

F-14D Tomcat Retirement Left 100,000-Ton US Navy Nuclear Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carriers with a ‘Math Problem’ That Can’t Seem to Be Solved

Aerospace & Defense

A Mach 3 US Air Force SR-71 Blackbird Buzzed Sacramento’s Control Tower in Afterburner. The Tower Wanted More

Aerospace & Defense

A Lockheed Mach 3.2 YF-12 Spy Plane Locked Onto a Target Drone From More Than 100 Miles Away and 14.2 Miles Below It, Then Killed It With a Missile Fired From 53 Miles. That Was 1966, and Only 3 of These Aircraft Were Ever Built.

Aerospace & Defense

The B-36 Had a 230-Foot Wingspan, 10 Engines and a 10,000-Mile Range, Survived 5 Attempts to Cancel It, and None of Nearly 400 Built Dropped a Bomb in Anger

Aerospace & Defense

Four US Navy battleships mothballed for decades came back in 1982 for $1.7 billion to answer a Soviet nuclear battlecruiser, one plan cut off an aft 16-inch turret for a Harrier flight deck, the Navy bolted on 32 Tomahawks and 16 Harpoons instead, and all four were gone by 1992

Aerospace & Defense

Lockheed Drew Up an SR-71 Blackbird Firing 210-Kiloton Nuclear Missiles From 80,000 Feet at Mach 3.2, Range 500 Nautical Miles, and Half Would Have Missed

Aerospace & Defense

Russia Was 40 Percent Done With a Nimitz-Class Style Aircraft Carrier That Might Have Been 94,000-Tons and Had 4 Nuclear Reactors When It Was Scrapped

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