Author: Michael

The Canadian Patrol Submarine Project, often referred to in shorthand as CPSP, is Ottawa’s attempt to replace the Royal Canadian Navy’s aged Victoria-class submarines with a significantly larger and much more capable submarine force. By Canadian standards, this project is significant. Ottawa would like up to 12 conventionally powered submarines capable of operating not only in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans but also in Canada’s far north, in Arctic waters. It is that last requirement that has exerted a significant influence on the CPSP project.

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The $13 billion USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) cannot safely operate Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II fighters because the aircraft carrier’s flight deck was designed before the F-35C’s final heat specifications existed. The Pentagon calls it a synchronization gap. The Ford’s design was frozen on August 11, 2005, when the first steel was cut. The F-35C’s exhaust plume runs at 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to warp the carrier’s standard flight deck plating.

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Summary and Key Points: The U.S. Navy is finalizing plans to buy the first Trump-class battleship in its 2027 budget — ensuring the new warship is purchased by 2028, before President Trump leaves office.

-Each Trump-class battleship will be armed with 128 Mk-41 Vertical Launch Systems firing SM-3, SM-6, and Tomahawk missiles, plus surface-fired hypersonic missiles, 600 kilowatt lasers, a 32-megajoule railgun, and deck-mounted 5-inch guns capable of firing precision-guided rounds.

-The class could grow to 15-25 ships if the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base can flex to meet demand. The U.

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Summary and Key Points: An American SR-71 Blackbird lost one engine to an inlet unstart at 83,000 feet and Mach 3 during a reconnaissance mission over Vladivostok, the major Soviet port on the Pacific.

-The pilot immediately shut down the second engine to prevent catastrophic asymmetric thrust from tearing the aircraft apart — leaving the SR-71 in an uncontrolled descent with zero thrust over Soviet territory. The pilot and Reconnaissance Systems Officer refused to eject. They recovered the aircraft and diverted to South Korea for repairs.

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Four in 10 Americans have no retirement savings — a slow-moving crisis that spans every generation. 57% of young workers aged 18 to 34 have no retirement plan, 42% of mid-career workers aged 34 to 54 have no retirement account, and 40% of older workers aged 55 to 65 still have nothing saved. 29% of current retirees report having no savings. Americans believe they need approximately $2.1 million to retire comfortably, but 62% have less than $150,000 saved and the average retirement account holds approximately $288,700.

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The U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet Service Life Extension Program has extended the aircraft from 6,000 flight hours all the way to 10,000 — buying years of additional service life for a 1970s McDonnell Douglas-Northrop design while the Navy waits for the F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter. The Super Hornet has been retrofitted with conformal fuel tanks designed to reduce radar signature, rounded external weapons pods, Magic Carpet glide-slope landing software, the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System, and an enhanced AESA radar.

The U.S.

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The U.S. Navy’s most advanced warships — the USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Zumwalt, among them — are paradoxically more vulnerable to fire than older ships. The USS Zumwalt operates a Total Ship Computing Environment with more than 6 million lines of code, with wiring that runs through compartments exposed to ocean salt and high humidity. The USS Gerald R. Ford uses electromagnetic aircraft launch systems running at extremely high voltages and currents — generating significant heat. Both ships use integrated power systems that distribute electricity for propulsion and weapons together.

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The only pass that Maurice Britt caught during his brief NFL career went for a 45-yard touchdown.
Britt played nine games for the Detroit Lions in 1941 before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States’ entry into World War II. While Britt did not particularly distinguish himself on the professional football field, his exploits on the battlefield were extraordinary.

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On paper, Vladimir Putin is a modestly compensated public servant. The Kremlin’s official disclosures list his annual salary at roughly $140,000. His declared personal assets — a small apartment in St. Petersburg, three Russian cars, a Soviet-era trailer — would not be out of place in the financial filings of a mid-career American mayor. The official record describes a Russian president living, more or less, like a retired schoolteacher. The off-paper estimates tell a fundamentally different story.

Putin Is a Thief, and Russia Is the Victim 

Putin Back in June 2021.

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