The U.S. Navy’s 14 Ohio-class SSBN ballistic missile submarines form the sea-based leg of America’s nuclear triad. Each submarine carries 20 Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles with multiple independently-targeted warheads and a range of 4,000 miles. The Ohio-class is 560 feet long, displaces 18,750 tons submerged, runs on an S8G nuclear reactor at over 20 knots, dives below 984 feet, and carries 155 sailors. Each boat operates with Blue and Gold crew rotations — 77 days at sea, then 35 days in port. The class begins retirement in 2028.
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There is no F-35 Lightning II kill switch — the Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin have both said so directly. But the rumor that the U.S. could remotely disable allied F-35s gained traction after the Trump administration’s televised confrontation with Volodymyr Zelensky in March, and several allies are rethinking their orders. Canada is contractually obligated to only 16 of an originally agreed 88 F-35s; Saab is pushing the JAS-39 Gripen for the remaining 72. Portugal canceled its F-35 buy.
Yes, you read that right: Norman Schwarzkopf’s Beretta. The handgun that was on the hip of one of America’s most famous generals during one of the nation’s most significant modern military operations could soon be yours.
Imagine having the opportunity to bid on Andrew Jackson’s sword from the Battle of New Orleans or Teddy Roosevelt’s Colt 1892 revolver from his assault on Kettle Hill. Going straight from his family’s possession to the auction block, the sale of Gen. Schwarzkopf’s Desert Storm M9 is unprecedented.
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Lockheed Martin’s $11 billion F-22 Raptor 2.0 upgrade adds stealth-compatible conformal external fuel tanks and infrared search and track pods on the outer wings — extending the F-22’s combat radius by up to 850 nautical miles without sacrificing stealth. Katie Ciccarino, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s F-22 program, said the new Low Drag Tank and Pylon fuel tanks can stay on the aircraft through combat. The F-22 Raptor’s current unrefueled combat radius is roughly 590 nautical miles — a critical limitation in the Pacific.
Operation Epic Fury has effectively saved the A-10 Warthog, an aircraft we have seen up close – our original videos and photos included below. The U.S. Air Force, which spent years trying to retire the venerable close air support platform, is now extending the A-10 Thunderbolt II’s service life into the 2030s — driven in part by the aircraft’s surprising success hunting Iranian small boats and coastal threats at low altitude during the campaign. The A-10 is engineered around its GAU-8/A 30mm Gatling gun, which fires 70 rounds per second from a 1,150-round magazine.
During NATO Exercise JTFEX/TMDI 99 in 1999, the Dutch diesel-electric submarine HNLMS Walrus (S802) penetrated the layered defensive escort screen around the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) and notionally sank her in simulated torpedo attacks. The Walrus displaces only about 2,800 tons submerged, measures 222 feet, carries roughly 50 to 55 crew, runs on near-silent battery power, and is armed with four 533mm torpedo tubes and Harpoon missiles. The USS Theodore Roosevelt cost more than $4.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on May 21 that Chinese President Xi Jinping may travel to Pyongyang as early as next week, according to a senior government official in Seoul. An advance team from China’s Central Security Bureau and protocol officers from the CCP Central Committee have already traveled to the North Korean capital. South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong Young said a Kim Jong Un-Donald Trump summit will be discussed if Xi visits Pyongyang. Trump met Kim three times during his first presidential term.
Airbus Defense and Space chief Mike Schoellhorn told an Airbus event that he would support a two-aircraft solution for the European Future Combat Air System sixth-generation fighter program if a single fighter cannot work for France, Germany, and Spain. Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury added that the assumptions behind FCAS — launched in 2017 to deliver a European sixth-generation fighter by the 2040s — are no longer valid after the war in Ukraine. France is the only partner with an aircraft carrier and an explicit nuclear weapons delivery requirement.
Australia’s HMAS Waller, a Collins-class diesel-electric submarine, ‘notionally’ sank a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in a wargame simulation and several escorts at the RIMPAC 2000 exercise. The Waller penetrated the carrier strike group’s defenses through patience, acoustic discipline, slow deliberate movements, and the natural advantages diesel-electric propulsion offers at low speed in the littorals. The Collins-class is 77.8 meters long, displaces 3,400 tons submerged, carries 58 crew, runs to 20 knots underwater on battery, and is armed with six 533mm torpedo tubes.
Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet told investors that the company’s F-35 Ferrari concept — an advanced fifth-generation-plus derivative of the F-35 Lightning II incorporating technology from the company’s failed NGAD demonstrator — is now being discussed at the Department of Defense and may soon reach the White House. Lockheed Martin lost the Next Generation Air Dominance program to Boeing’s F-47 sixth-generation fighter in 2025. Taiclet claims the proposed F-35 Ferrari could deliver 80% of sixth-generation capability at half the price.