For over 3,000 years, warriors have relied on armor to survive the battlefield. But body armor has changed dramatically—from hammered bronze plates and medieval chainmail to Kevlar, ceramic strike faces, and experimental future materials.

In this episode of The Rank and File Podcast, Tyler Brown and Tyler Randall walk through every major leap in armor technology, explaining not only how each type was made, but what threats it was designed to counter. From Bronze Age spears to gunpowder muskets, from fragmentation in the world wars to modern ballistic rifles, the story of armor is the story of survival.

00:00 – Intro
02:23 – Ancient Armor: Bronze to Iron
07:35 – The Medieval Revolution: Mail & Plate
15:00 – Gunpowder Changes the Game
20:08 – World War I & World War II: The Return of Armor
25:26 – The Ballistic Era: Kevlar, Ceramics, and Modern Plate Systems
37:26 – Future Armor: Graphene, Liquid Armor, and Exoskeletons
43:41 – Outro

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From the deadly U-boat Wolfpacks of World War II to the silent nuclear giants of the Cold War and the AI-driven submarines of today - this episode explores how the war beneath the waves reshaped the modern world.

Part 2 of Beneath the Surface dives into the evolution of submarine warfare across three eras:
• World War II – Wolfpack tactics, the Battle of the Atlantic, and the Allied counterstrike.
• The Cold War – Nuclear deterrence, silent patrols, and the cat-and-mouse duel under the ice.
• Modern Era – Digital oceans, stealth technology, and unmanned undersea warfare.

By the end of World War II, submarines had evolved from tactical raiders into strategic weapons that defined entire conflicts. Today, they remain the most secretive and powerful machines ever built — both sword and shield, maintaining peace through the threat of the unseen.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:38 World War II – The Ocean Becomes a Battlefield
05:59 The Cold War – Cat and Mouse in the Deep
12:43 The Modern Era – The Digital Ocean
19:10 Outro

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For centuries, sailors feared what lurked beneath the waves — until humans decided to join it.

In Part 1 of The Rank and File Podcast’s two-part deep dive into submarine warfare, we trace the origins of underwater combat - from Cornelis Drebbel’s 17th-century invention to the deadly U-boats of World War I.

This episode explores the early pioneers who risked everything to master the deep - inventors, engineers, and soldiers who transformed the ocean from a frontier into a battlefield.

• The world’s first submarine: Cornelis Drebbel’s underwater experiment (1600s)

• The Turtle: America’s first underwater attack (1776)

• The H.L. Hunley: The first successful submarine kill (1864)

• The U-Boat Revolution: How World War I changed naval warfare forever

Part 2 releases next week - covering WWII to modern nuclear and stealth submarine warfare.

Before the Allies could liberate Europe, they faced an impossible problem: no deep-water ports on the beaches of Normandy.This is the story of how concrete, steel, and imagination turned open beaches into harbors — and harbors into victory.From Winston Churchill’s radical vision to the secret shipyards that built floating cities, discover the engineering marvel behind D-Day: the Mulberry Harbors.

In this debut episode of The Rank and File Podcast, Tyler Brown and Tyler Randall map the arc of airborne warfare — starting with bamboo-and-silk kites used for rangefinding, signaling, and psychological effect in 200 BC, marching through balloons, fragile WWI biplanes, jets, and helicopters, and finishing with the revolution of unmanned systems.
The Tylers explain key milestones (the French Aerostatic Corps, WWI synchronization gear, the helicopter medevac, the Kettering Bug, Israel’s battlefield drones, the RQ-2 Pioneer, the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper) and unpack what today’s cheap quadcopters, FPV strike drones, and loitering munitions mean for soldiers on the ground. Using lessons from Ukraine, we cover swarm tactics, EW and kinetic counters, squad-level employment, and the thorny ethical and doctrinal questions raised by remote and autonomous strike systems. Practical, gritty, and tactical — this episode is for anyone who wants to understand how the sky became a new front for the infantry.