…money, action, inventory…
In spite of the rough lessons on the importance of mass in the Korean and Vietnam Wars in the second half of the 20th Century—and even the cold bucket of sand thrown in our face about what is required for even heavy imperial policing like we had in Iraq and Afghanistan at the end of the first decade of this century—a large segment of the national security nomenklatura was content with boutique-levels of warstocks in our relatively shallow magazines.
The Republic of China Army has unveiled new the Hsuan-Chieh tactical electronic warfare vehicles, which were designed to support combined arms brigades, and provide a capability not only to jam enemy UHF/VHF military frequency communications, but also counter enemy electronic warfare jamming.
The M551 Sheridan was one of the U.S. Army’s most ambitious tanks: light enough to parachute onto a battlefield, able to swim rivers, and armed with a 152mm gun that fired both shells and the Shillelagh guided missile. Rushed into Vietnam in 1969, it proved fast and mobile, with HEAT rounds that shredded bunkers. But its thin aluminum hull was vulnerable to mines and RPGs, and its gun was unreliable. Retired in 1996, it was America’s last light tank.
Meet the M551 Sheridan
M551 Sheridan Light Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
M551 Sheridan U.S. Army.
Summary and Key Points: Years before the famous SR-71 Blackbird, the CIA built the A-12 Oxcart — a top-secret Mach 3 spy plane designed by Kelly Johnson’s Skunk Works to replace the vulnerable U-2.
-First flown from Area 51 in 1962, the A-12 was America’s first stealth aircraft and hit a sustained Mach 3.2 at 90,000 feet, a piloted-jet record still unbroken. The Air Force’s SR-71 followed, carrying more sensors but flying a touch slower. The program ended in 1968.
Summary and Key Points: The B-47 Stratojet is one of the least-celebrated Cold War bombers — and one of the most influential.
-To build it, Boeing drew on captured German swept-wing research, pairing those wings with a cylindrical fuselage and podded jet engines.
B-47 Bomber. Image Credit: U.S. Air Force.
-That formula proved so sound it shaped the KC-135 tanker, the Boeing 707, and nearly every airliner since, from the 737 to Airbus.
-The B-47 was fast but flawed — six crashed in four days from metal fatigue — and retired by 1966.
The B-47 Bomber from the U.S.
Summary and Key Points: In 1983, the USS Enterprise — the world’s first nuclear-powered carrier — was returning from a Pacific deployment when it ran aground on a sandbar in San Francisco Bay, just 1,000 yards from its berth.
-Some 4,500 sailors and 3,000 waiting families were left stranded in sight of one another.
USS Enterprise. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-Adding to the irony, Star Trek’s George Takei had flown out to welcome the crew, joking about “Enterprise on the Rocks.” Tugboats and the tide freed it after six hours.
Summary and Key Points: The USS America (CV-66), a Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier, served the Navy for 30 years — through Vietnam, the 1986 Libya strikes, and Desert Storm — without ever losing an aircraft to enemy fire.
-Her final mission was unusual: in 2005, the Navy used the decommissioned carrier as a live-fire “SinkEx” target to build tougher future ships.
A Fighter Squadron 101 (VF-101) F-4J Phantom II aircraft taxis on the flight deck of the attack aircraft carrier USS AMERICA (CVA 66).
An American aircraft fired a Hellfire missile into a cargo ship’s engine room on Friday, disabling the vessel after it tried to break the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Central Command said on Saturday that the military took action against the Gambia-flagged M/V Lian Star after it tried sailing through the Gulf of Oman towards an Iranian port on May 29.
It’s the fifth time since early April that U.S. forces have directly fired on a ship to disable it as part of enforcing the blockade. The U.S.
This video describes the military situation in
Eleven months after they escorted B-2 Spirit stealth bombers into Iran, airmen from the 34th Fighter Squadron were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for their part in the June 2025 strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
Six airmen from the 34th Fighter Squadron received Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Air Force’s highest honor for valor during flight against an enemy, for actions covering last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer as well as last spring’s fight against Houthi forces in Yemen. The squadron, flying F-35As, deployed to the Middle East in early 2025 for several months.
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