Triumph and Tragedy: The USS Indianapolis

No one on board the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) knew anything about the cargo they were carrying. What they did know was that the veteran cruiser (launched in 1931) made the trip from San Francisco to the island of Tinian in the Marianas in just ten days. The crew was proud of the “Indy”, and fo...

By Tom Laemlein

Mikoyan MiG-29: The Reactive Fulcrum?

Military aircraft design of the Cold War era could be described as akin to physics, or, more specifically, to Newton’s Third Law of motion, which states, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” From lessons learned in the Vietnam War, the United States Air Force determi...

By Peter Suciu

POTD: Army Shrinks the NGSW - Meet the XM8 Carbine

For today’s Photo Of The Day, we have pictures of the new XM8 Carbine used by the members of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit. The XM8 is designed to improve maneuverability, especially in confined environments, while retaining the same 6.8×51mm ammunition and core operating system as ...

By Eric B

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

The Polish Westernization of the PKM - The UKM-2000P/UKM-2020S

Poland’s love for the PK series of machine guns cannot be overstated. It continues to serve today, even after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact nations and the USSR, with Western modernizations that may preserve the core reliability that made the original famous. It began when the PK entered ...

By Lynndon Schooler

Army Testing Shorter, Lighter XM8 Carbine (Revised)

The XM8 ships with a 25-round magazine. Twenty-round mags from the M7 remain compatible. That directly addresses one of the louder complaints in Army Capt. Braden Trent's May 2025 assessment of the M7, which called the 20-round capacity a liability. As TFB covered when the Army type-classifi...

By Josh C

Kingfisher vs. Zero: Shocking Victory Over Iwo Jima

A wide range of really well-known aircraft types were used in World War II, by both sides. But for every Mustang, British Spitfire, Bf109, Zero, Flying Fortress, Corsair or Mitchell bomber, there were many other hard-working planes that received little to no attention. Quite often their operation...

By Tom Laemlein

Brewster F2A Buffalo: WWII’s Forgotten Fighter

The air war during World War II saw the transition from the last of the biplane fighters to the beginning of the jet age. A myriad of aircraft were in action around the globe; some have become enduring icons while others faded into obscurity. The Brewster F2A Buffalo can legitimately claim member...

By Tom Laemlein
« Newer Posts Older Posts »