Ayoob: The 1911 at War

I recently heard someone say that handguns have no place in military combat. History shows us otherwise. For the tanker, artilleryman, radio operator or medic whose hands are too busy at designated tasks to hold a rifle, the pistol makes enormous sense. Behind the lines when unpleasant surprises ...

By Massad Ayoob

Battle of Britain: Myth vs. Reality

The idealized concept immediately took root and blossomed: the Royal Air Force saved Britain from invasion in 1940. The conventional wisdom holds that Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s legendary “few” handed Nazi Germany its first defeat in World War II and paved the road to eventual victo...

By Barrett Tillman

Shifty Powers: The Gun Guy from “Band of Brothers”

Editor’s Note: Today’s article is about Sgt. Darrell Powers, a World War II hero who served with the 101st Airborne Division. Nicknamed “Shifty”, Powers saw action in the American airborne landings in Normandy, Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge. Powers was more than “j...

By Massad Ayoob

Inside the AK-100 Series

The AK-100 series was developed during one of the hardest periods in modern Russian history, in the years after the Soviet Union collapsed and the country was dealing with a deep economic crisis. In that environment in the early 1990s, Izhmash made the ambitious decision to create a new family of...

By Lynndon Schooler

How 3D Printing Supports Army Readiness, One Layer at a Time

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. — Inside a small workspace filled with printers, plastic filament and computer-aided design software, a battlefield problem can be solved with a solution and takes shape one layer at a time. That process was the focus of the 3D printing symposium, hosted by 1st S...

By Eric G

Lockheed D-21: Cold War Spy Drone

In October 1962, the C.I.A. and the U.S.A.F. requested that Lockheed study a high-speed, high-altitude drone concept for reconnaissance flights over particularly hostile territories to avoid endangering aircrews. Created during the height of the Cold War and following the shootdown of a U-2 spy p...

By Friedrich Seiltgen

Paratroopers Train with Anti-Drone Ammunition

US Army Soldiers assigned to the XVIII Airborne Corps train and familiarize themselves with the 5.56mm L-variant Drone Round to counter small unmanned arial systems at Oak Grove Training Center, N.C., April 9, 2026. The 5.56mm L-variant Drone Round is designed to neutralize sUAS by volume of fire...

By Eric G

Curtiss P-36 Hawk: Hero Plane of Pearl Harbor?

At the National Museum of the United States Air Force, many visitors will see an unfamiliar aircraft at the entrance to the WWII gallery. The museum’s display of the gleaming silver fighter coded “86” on the fuselage, features a pilot boarding the plane in his pajamas, with an M1911 pistol ...

By Tom Laemlein
Older Posts »