Good Friday Morning August 14, 2020
I hope that you all have a great weekend
Regards.
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Today in Naval History
August 14
1813 In the early morning, the brig USS Argus, commanded by William H. Allen, battles HMS Pelican, off England's coast. During battle, Allens right leg is shot off, but he remains on station until fainting. As Pelicans men board, USS Argus strikes her colors. Allen died four days later.
1886 The Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney signs General Order 354 establishing the Naval Gun Factory at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill agreed to the Atlantic Charter at Argentia, Nova Scotia.
1945 USS Spikefish (SS 404) sink the Japanese submarine (I 373), in the Sea of Japan. Also on this date, USS Torsk (SS 423) sinks Coast Defense Vessel (No.13), and Coast Defense Vessel No.47.
1945 The Japanese accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and agree to surrender, ending World War II. It is known as V-J Day! Announcing the news to the country in the evening, President Harry S. Truman proclaims a two-day holiday. Explosive celebrations immediately follow as Americans and their Allies rejoice that World War II is finally over.
Thanks to CHINFO
Executive Summary:
Looks like the government took the day off
Today in History August 14
1457 | The first book ever printed is published by a German astrologer named Faust. He is thrown in jail while trying to sell books in Paris. Authorities concluded that all the identical books meant Faust had dealt with the devil. | |||
1559 | Spanish explorer Tristan de Luna enters Pensacola Bay, Florida. | |||
1605 | The Popham expedition reaches the Sagadahoc River in present-day Maine and settles there. | |||
1756 | French commander Louis Montcalm takes Fort Oswego, New England, from the British. | |||
1793 | Republican troops in France lay siege to the city of Lyons. | |||
1900 | The European allies enter Beijing, relieving their besieged legations from the Chinese Boxers. | |||
1917 | The Chinese Parliament declares war on the Central Powers. | |||
1942 | Dwight D. Eisenhower is named the Anglo-American commander for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. | |||
1945 | Japan announces its unconditional surrender in World War II. | |||
1947 | Pakistan becomes an independent country. | |||
1969 | British troops arrived Northern Ireland in response to sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics. | |||
1973 | The United States ends the "secret" bombing of Cambodia. | |||
1987 | Mark McGwire hits his 49th home run of the season, setting the major league home run record for a rookie. | |||
1995 | Shannon Faulker becomes the first female cadet in the long history of South Carolina's state military college, The Citadel. Her presence is met with intense resistance, reportedly including death threats, and she will leave the school a week later. | |||
2007 | Four coordinated suicide bomb attacks in Yazidi towns near Mosul, Iraq, kill more than 400 people. | |||
2010 | First-ever Summer Youth Olympic Games open, in Singapore. Athletes must be 14–18 years old.
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1945
Japan's surrender made public »
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This Day in U S Military History
1784 – On Kodiak Island, Grigory Shelikhov, a Russian fur trader, founds Three Saints Bay, the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska. The European discovery of Alaska came in 1741, when a Russian expedition led by Danish navigator Vitus Bering sighted the Alaskan mainland. Russian hunters were soon making incursions into Alaska, and the native Aleut population suffered greatly after being exposed to foreign diseases. The Three Saints Bay colony was founded on Kodiak Island in 1784, and Shelikhov lived there for two years with his wife and 200 men. From Three Saints Bay, the Alaskan mainland was explored, and other fur-trade centers were established. In 1786, Shelikhov returned to Russia and in 1790 dispatched Aleksandr Baranov to manage his affairs in Russia. Baranov established the Russian American Company and in 1799 was granted a monopoly over Alaska. Baranov extended the Russian trade far down the west coast of North America and in 1812, after several unsuccessful attempts, founded a settlement in Northern California near Bodega Bay. British and American trading vessels soon disputed Russia's claims to the northwest coast of America, and the Russians retreated north to the present southern border of Alaska. Russian interests in Alaska gradually declined, and after the Crimean War in the 1850s, a nearly bankrupt Russia sought to dispose of the territory altogether. The czarist government first approached the United States about selling the territory during the administration of President James Buchanan, but negotiations were stalled by the outbreak of the American Civil War. After the war, Secretary of State William H. Seward, a supporter of territorial expansion, was eager to acquire the tremendous landmass of Alaska, one-fifth the size of the rest of the United States. On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as "Seward's folly," "Seward's icebox," and President Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden." In April 1867, the Senate ratified the treaty by a margin of just one vote. Despite a slow start in settlement by Americans from the continental United States, the discovery of gold in 1898 brought a rapid influx of people to the territory. Alaska, rich in natural resources, has been contributing to American prosperity ever since. On January 3, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting the territory of Alaska into the Union as the 49th state.
1900 – During the Boxer Rebellion, an international force featuring British, Russian, American, Japanese, French, and German troops relieves the Chinese capital of Peking after fighting its way 80 miles from the port of Tientsin. The Chinese nationalists besieging Peking's diplomatic quarter were crushed, and the Boxer Rebellion effectively came to an end. By the end of the 19th century, the Western powers and Japan had forced China's ruling Ch'ing dynasty to accept wide foreign control over the country's economic affairs. In the Opium Wars, popular rebellions, and the Sino-Japanese War, China had fought to resist the foreigners, but it lacked a modernized military and millions died. In 1898, Tz'u Hsi, the dowager empress, gained control of the Chinese government in a conservative coup against the Emperor Kuang-hsu, her adoptive son and an advocate of reforms. Tz'u Hsi had previously served as ruler of China in various regencies and was deeply anti-foreign in her ideology. In 1899, her court began to secretly support the anti-foreign rebels known as the I Ho Ch'uan, or the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists." The I Ho Ch'uan was a secret society formed with the original goal of expelling the foreigners and overthrowing the Ch'ing dynasty. The group practiced a ritualistic form of martial arts that they believed gave them supernatural powers and made them impervious to bullets. After witnessing these fighting displays, Westerners named members of the society "Boxers." Most Boxers came from northern China, where natural calamities and foreign aggression in the late 1890s had ruined the economy. The ranks of the I Ho Ch'uan swelled with embittered peasants who directed their anger against Christian converts and foreign missionaries, whom they saw as a threat to their traditional ways and blamed for their misery. After the dowager empress returned to power, the Boxers pushed for an alliance with the imperial court against the foreigners. Tz'u Hsi gave her tacit support to their growing violence against the Westerners and their institutions, and some officials incorporated the Boxers into local militias. Open attacks on missionaries and Chinese Christians began in late 1899, and by May 1900 bands of Boxers had begun gathering in the countryside around Peking. In spite of threats by the foreign powers, the empress dowager began openly supporting the Boxers. In early June, an international relief force of 2,000 soldiers was dispatched by Western and Japanese authorities from the port of Tientsin to Peking. The empress dowager ordered Imperial forces to block the advance of the foreigners, and the relief force was turned back. Meanwhile, the Peking-Tientsin railway line and other railroads were destroyed by the Chinese. On June 13, the Boxers, now some 140,000 strong, moved into Peking and began burning churches and foreign residences. On June 17, the foreign powers seized forts between Tientsin and Peking, and the next day Tz'u Hsi called on all Chinese to attack foreigners. On June 20, the German ambassador Baron von Ketteler was killed and the boxers began besieging the foreign legations in the diplomatic quarter of the Chinese capital. As the foreign powers organized a multinational force to crush the rebellion, the siege of the Peking legations stretched into weeks, and the diplomats, their families, and guards suffered through hunger and degrading conditions as they fought desperately to keep the Boxers at bay. Eventually, an expedition of 19,000 multinational troops pushed their way to Peking after fighting two major battles against the Boxers. On August 14, the eight-nation allied relief force captured Peking and liberated the legations. The foreign troops looted the city and routed the Boxers, while the empress and her court fled to the north. The victorious powers began work on a peace settlement. Due to mutual jealousies between the nations, it was agreed that China would not be partitioned further, and in September 1901 the Peking Protocol was signed, formally ending the Boxer Rebellion. By the terms of agreement, the foreign nations received extremely favorable commercial treaties with China, foreign troops were permanently stationed in Peking, and China was forced to pay $333 million as penalty for its rebellion. China was effectively a subject nation. The Boxers had failed to expel the foreigners, but their rebellion set the stage for the successful Chinese revolutions of the 20th century
1940 – Sir Henry Tizard heads a British scientific mission to the United States, carrying with him details of all of Britain's most advanced thinking in several vital fields. There are ideas on jet engines, explosives, gun turrets and above all a little device called the cavity magnetron. This valve is vital for the development of more advanced types of radar, including the versions used in proximity fuses later and the types working on centimetric wavelengths which will be vital at sea in the U-boat war. The US Official History will later describe this collection as the "most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores."
1965 – The advance units of the Seventh Marines land at Chu Lai, bringing U.S. Marine strength in South Vietnam to four regiments and four air groups. The Marines were given the responsibility of conducting operations in southern I Corps and northern II Corps, just south of the Demilitarized Zone. Hanoi Radio broadcasted an appeal to American troops, particularly African Americans, to "get out." This was purportedly a message from an American defector from the Korean War living in Peking. In South Korea, the National Assembly approved sending troops to fight in South Vietnam; in exchange for sending one combat division to Vietnam, the United States agreed to equip five South Korean divisions.
2007 – The deadliest single attack of the whole war occurred. Nearly 800 civilians were killed by a series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on the northern Iraqi settlement of Kahtaniya. More than 100 homes and shops were destroyed in the blasts. U.S. officials blamed al-Qaeda. The targeted villagers belonged to the non-Muslim Yazidi ethnic minority. The attack may have represented the latest in a feud that erupted earlier that year when members of the Yazidi community stoned to death a teenage girl called Du'a Khalil Aswad accused of dating a Sunni Arab man and converting to Islam. The killing of the girl was recorded on camera-mobiles and the video was uploaded onto the internet.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*HAMMOND, LESTER, JR.
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company A, 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team. Place and date: Near Kumwha, Korea, 14 August 1952. Entered service at: Quincy, Ill. Born: 25 March 1931, Wayland, Mo. G.O. No.: 63, 17 August 1953. Citation: Cpl. Hammond, a radio operator with Company A, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. Cpl. Hammond was a member of a 6 man reconnaissance patrol which had penetrated approximately 3,500 yards into enemy-held territory. Ambushed and partially surrounded by a large hostile force, the small group opened fire, then quickly withdrew up a narrow ravine in search of protective cover. Despite a wound sustained in the initial exchange of fire and imminent danger of being overrun by the numerically superior foe, he refused to seek shelter and, remaining in an exposed place, called for artillery fire to support a defensive action. Constantly vulnerable to enemy observation and action, he coordinated and directed crippling fire on the assailants, inflicting heavy casualties and repulsing several attempts to overrun friendly positions. Although wounded a second time, he remained steadfast and maintained his stand until mortally wounded. His indomitable fighting spirit set an inspiring example of valor to his comrades and, through his actions, the onslaught was stemmed, enabling a friendly platoon to reach the beleaguered patrol, evacuate the wounded, and effect a safe withdrawal to friendly lines. Cpl. Hammond's unflinching courage and consummate devotion to duty reflect lasting glory on himself and uphold the finest traditions of the military service.
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Interesting! Ng
Thanks to NiseGuy.The first time I read this many years ago it was very enlightening and still is
God or 3 Mistakes?
What God did at Pearl Harbor that day is interesting and I never knew this little bit of history.
Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every thirty minutes. We just missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes. I went into a small gift shop to kill time.
In the gift shop, I purchased a small book entitled, "Reflections on Pearl Harbor" by Admiral Chester Nimitz.
Sunday, December 7th, 1941— Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington, DC. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him. When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone.
He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and defeat--you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war.
On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters everywhere you looked. As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, "Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?"
Admiral Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice. Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make, or God was taking care of America. Which do you think it was?"
Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, "What do you mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?
Nimitz explained:
Mistake number one:
The Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk--we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.
Mistake number two :
When the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships. If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow every one of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America. And I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.
Mistake number three : Every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in top of the ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply.
That's why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could make or, God was taking care of America.
I've never forgotten what I read in that little book. It is still an inspiration as I reflect upon it. In jest, I might suggest that because Admiral Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised in Fredericksburg, Texas -- he was a born optimist.
But any way you look at it -- Admiral Nimitz was able to see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else saw only despair and defeatism.
President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right job. We desperately needed a leader that could see the silver lining in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair and defeat.
There is a reason that our national motto is, IN GOD WE TRUST.
Why have we forgotten? PRAY FOR OUR COUNTRY! IN GOD WE TRUST.
Please pass this important message to others. Americans need to stand behind one another!
God Bless America
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Thanks to Gregg
This boy is perhaps the most brilliant person alive - and you can't help but REALLY LIKE him!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PINttscIAEo
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Another from Dr. Rich
Spies Helped the USAF shoot down Hanoi jets
Thanks to Jon …
…and another! Pretty cool F-4 stuff.
Also attached is a photo I took at Steve Ritchie's birthday party in Bellevue last month. The really cool part is the gentleman to the right of Ritchie…John Madden. John had 3.5 kills in the F-4 and was the real reason Ritchie became an Ace. The thing that struck me most about John has been his statements to me about their successes - he has shared thoughts with me on two occasions, last year and this year. The greatest success story, Madden says, is that they never lost anyone during combat.
PS I always am the person who takes the photos and very seldom am I in one…mostly because I don't recognize the old looking man…me!:)
Jon
..........,I understand there may be a variance in what those in NSA said they knew, or not, but if it worked...,,,,,
Spies Helped the USAF Shoot Down a Third of North Vietnam's MiG-21s
Dec 30, 2014 · 7 min read
The American pilots had to keep the NSA in the dark
On Jan. 2, 1967, around 30 U.S. Air Force F-4 Phantom fighter jets flying from Ubon in Thailand shot down a full third of North Vietnam's MiG-21s—for a loss of just one of their own.
It was a strategic victory in an air war that had been going poorly for American forces.
And now newly-declassified documents reveal that this complex mission—Operation Bolo—couldn't have succeeded without significant help from the signal-snooping Air Force Security Service.
And to avoid a squabbles over scarce intel resources, the Op Bolo units had to keep the National Security Agency in the dark.
The operation—originally known simply as the "special mission"—had a hard time getting approved in the first place. By the end of 1966, both sides in the bitter war had lost just a few aircraft in air-to-air combat over North Vietnam, rendering a dramatic aerial sweep unnecessary.
In almost two years of air strikes, the Pentagon had lost only 10 planes to enemy MiGs. American fliers had themselves scored fewer than 30 aerial kills.
On top of this, Washington was worried about drawing countries including the Soviet Union and China into the conflict—a distinct possibility considering that Soviet and Chinese advisers were working with Hanoi's air force.
The rules of engagement forbade American pilots from attacking Hanoi's airfields for fear of killing foreign advisers. Knowing all of this, the Vietnamese People's Air Force adopted new tactics for harassing its larger and vastly more powerful American enemy.
The MiGs would zip through flights of less nimble fighter-bombers just long enough to scare American crews into ditching their bombs or extra fuel tanks. Afterwards, the North Vietnamese pilots would often speed back to their bases—safe from their opponents—without even firing a shot..
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The U.S. Air Force's Seventh Air Force, which controlled most of the service's operations in Southeast Asia, was soon fed up with this dynamic. So the unit's commanders proposed an elaborate ambush aimed at whittling down Hanoi's fighter jets.
Seventh Air Force chose the famous Robin Olds—then a colonel in charge of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing in Thailand—to lead the American strike force.
To lure out the North Vietnamese, American F-4s would fly the same routes into the country as the heavyset F-105 bombers—and at the same altitudes and speeds while using the same radio call signs.
But another key—and previously unknown—element of the top secret plan involved deploying signal-snooping aircraft to keep track of the MiGs. The special C-130B-IIs would listen in on enemy radio chatter and feed information straight to American pilots throughout the mission, according to a just-released historical study.
Olds wanted to be alerted if things weren't working out so he could "turn around and lead the force home rather than expose it for no purpose," the official document explains.
With timely information, the task force could also try to cut off the MiGs from their bases if "the North Vietnamese suddenly figured out what was going on and wanted no part of it."
But the secret spy planes in question were tangled up in a serious bureaucratic mess. While technically Air Force property, the special C-130s fell under the control of the National Security Agency, which could refuse to loan them out for the mission.
NSA officials had objected to sending the aerial spooks—which flew under the codename Silver Dawn—on regular military operations. With fewer than 20 modified Hercules flying worldwide, the NSA probably worried these sort of day-to-day requirements would impede its own intelligence-gathering.
To alleviate these concerns, Pacific Air Forces tacitly approved a novel idea. Up and down the chain of command, everyone would simply cut the NSA out of the loop.
In any event, the flying branch's commanders in the Pacific felt that the existing Silver Dawn mandate justified sending the C-130s to help out with Operation Bolo, anyway.
Intelligence specialists were already using radio chatter that the Silver Dawn planes scooped up to figure out how many fighter jets Hanoi had on hand and where the aircraft were located, according to separate documents the NSA released recently..
The Air Force's Pacific headquarters "seemed to feel that [Seventh Air Force] was responsible for fighting the war in whatever way was necessary." But if the spy agency did find out, PACAF would "play down any prior knowledge of Silver Dawn involvement or deviation from normal operation," the special history notes.
The 6922nd Security Wing, which provided the intelligence personnel to operate the C-130s' special gear, also refused to be a part the final planning process—in order to shield itself from any repercussions.
Maj. John Chaueteur, who acted as a go-between for the Seventh Air Force and the Air Force Security Service, was most concerned about going behind the NSA's back. Chaueteur was in the uncomfortable position of effectively being ordered not to do his job.
"Chaueteur gets 'clobbered' every time he uses NSA as a reason for not doing something that [Seventh Air Force] wants done," the Air Force monograph quotes another official as saying.
Chaueteur was so worried about being reprimanded or relieved that he ordered the head of the Silver Dawn project to destroy evidence of any messages concerning Operation Bolo.
To help keep up this ruse-within-a-ruse, the bulk of the task force was told that normal EC-121 radar planes were supplying updates on the MiGs during the operation. This misinformation would also prevent the North Vietnamese pilots from thinking anything was amiss.
When Operation Bolo finally kicked off, two Silver Dawn C-130s were already orbiting in the Gulf of Tonkin, scanning the airwaves. Vietnamese, Russian, Chinese and Korean linguists were all at their posts.
These specialized personnel not only made sure the Vietnamese were responding as expected, but also kept watch in case Chinese jets decided to join the battle. Olds wanted to know if Russian or North Korean advisers were actually in the cockpits when the fighting started.
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The operation turned out to be a major success for the U.S. Hanoi's pilots were caught completely off guard.
When Olds' strike team started its attack, the C-130s picked up enemy pilots shocked to find that "the sky is full of F-4s," according to the declassified report. "Where are the F-105s? You briefed us to expect F-105s!"
"I'd like to come down now," another Vietnamese pilot reportedly declared.
Seven MiG-21s fell to Earth. The Pentagon had estimated Hanoi possessed between 20 to 25 of the jet interceptors before the secret op.
The NSA doesn't appear to have been aware, at the time, that the Air Force had appropriated its aircraft. We couldn't find out what happened to Chaueteur, but Olds earned a promotion to brigadier general the following year.
After a series of additional aerial ambushes, the Vietnamese People's Air Force grounded its MiGs and completely revised its procedures. At the end of the year, Washington approved strikes on Hanoi's air bases.
By 1973, American airmen had scored 137 confirmed air-to-air kills against their North Vietnamese adversaries.
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World News for 14 August thanks to Military Periscope
USA—Mid-Band Jammer Makes 1st Flight On Growler Electronic Attack Jet U.S. Naval Air Systems Command | 08/14/2020 The Navy has successfully flown the first element of its new jamming system on the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft for the first time, reports the Naval Air Systems Command. The flight on Aug. 7 was designed to validate that the jamming pods do not adversely affect the jet's performance. The pod was carried under the aircraft's right wing during the trial. The Next-Generation Jammer Mid-Band (NGJ-MB), developed by Raytheon, is part of the larger NGJ system that is being designed to replace the aging ALQ-99 electronic warfare pod. The NGJ system will consist of three separate pods, noted C4ISRNet. The NGJ-MB will use the latest digital, software-based and active electronically scanned array technologies and provide enhanced electronic attack capabilities to disrupt, deny and degrade enemy air defense and ground communication systems, said NAVAIR. Northrop Grumman and L3 Technologies are currently competing for the contract to develop the low-band NGJ. A timeline and funding for the high-band jammer have not been announced.
USA—Air Force Helicopter Crewmember Wounded By Gunshot While Flying Over N. Virginia Air Force Magazine | 08/14/2020 A U.S. Air Force helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing after taking gunfire during a training flight over northern Virginia, reports Air Force magazine. On Aug. 10, the UH-1N Iroquois was on approach to the Manassas, Va., airport when it was struck by gunfire while 10 miles (16 km) away. The helicopter was about 1,000 feet (300 m) above ground level at the time, said service officials. One of the pilots suffered a minor injury and was taken to a hospital and later released, reported CNN. The helicopter was also damaged by the bullet, the Air Force said. The helicopter is assigned to the 1st Helicopter Squadron at Joint Base Andrews, Md., that, among other missions, transports VIPs around the Washington, D.C., region. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Air Force are investigating the incident. It has not been determined if the aircraft was specifically targeted.
USA—State Dept. Designates HQ Of Confucius Institute Network As Foreign Mission U.S. State Dept. | 08/14/2020 The U.S. State Dept. says it will require the body that oversees educational centers affiliated with the Chinese government to register as a foreign mission. On Thursday, the department designated the Confucius Institute U.S. Center (CIUS) in Washington, D.C., which it called the de facto headquarters of the Confucius Center network, as a foreign mission of the People's Republic of China. The Confucius Institutes are a network of educational centers that promote Chinese language and culture and have been accused of serving as a propaganda organization for the Chinese government. CIUS is directly funded by the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), which is affiliated with the Chinese Education Ministry. The move will not force individual institutes to close but will require the CIUS to provide the State Dept. with information on Chinese personnel, recruiting, funding and operations in the U.S.
USA—4 Tankers Seized On Their Way To Venezuela From Iran Wall Street Journal | 08/14/2020 The U.S. has seized four Iranian tankers carrying fuel to Venezuela from Iran, reports the Wall Street Journal. In July, prosecutors filed suit in a bid to seize the tankers. At the time, it was unclear if those efforts would be successful. On Thursday, an official said that the four ships -- Luna, Pandi, Bering and Bella -- had been seized without the use of force. A judge approved the seizure after prosecutors alleged that an Iranian businessman close to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) used a network of shell companies to avoid sanctions. The IRGC has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. The circumstances of their capture were unclear. The Bering and the Bella were off the coast of Cape Verde when the suit was filed. The Luna and the Pandi were in Omani waters. The ships are now headed to Houston, where administration officials are expected to appear in a ceremony marking their seizure. Iranian Ambassador to Venezuela Hojat Soltani rejected the reports, calling them fake news, reported the semi-official Fars news agency (Tehran). Nine tankers were part of an original flotilla carrying fuel and other aid to Venezuela. Four privately-owned tankers separated from the group after they were contacted by U.S. authorities. The U.S. has stepped up its pressure campaign against Iran and Venezuela, contacting shipping companies as well as governments in its bid to prevent efforts to bypass sanctions.
China—PLA Holds Artillery Drills In Tibet Amid Tensions With India South China Morning Post | 08/14/2020 The Chinese military held live-fire artillery exercises not far from India amid a border dispute in the region, reports the South China Morning Post. The People's Liberation Army evaluated some of its latest artillery capabilities during training in late July in the Tibet Military Region, reported the state-run CCTV on Tuesday. The exercises involved new 122-mm truck-mounted howitzers and a vehicle-mounted variant of the HJ-10 anti-tank missile. The howitzer was said to be similar to the larger 155-mm PLC-181 truck-mounted artillery system, while the HJ-10 was carried on a smaller vehicle with a twin launcher instead of a quad launcher. The new vehicles appear to have been developed for operations in mountainous and high-altitude regions, analysts said.
China—Imagery Shows H-6J Bomber On Woody Island The War Zone | 08/14/2020 New photos indicate that H-6J bombers have deployed to a Chinese facility on Woody Island in the South China Sea for the first time, reports the War Zone website. The H-6J -- it was unclear if one aircraft or several were involved -- deployed to Woody Island at some point earlier this month, according to the Chinese Military Aviation blog. This would represent the first deployment of an H-6 bomber to any of China's artificial island bases in the South China Sea. Such bases had previously only hosted fighter aircraft. In May 2018, an H-6K reportedly made touch-and-go landings at Woody Island, demonstrating the ability of the facility to host the bomber. The H-6J, the naval variant of the H-6K that entered service in 2018, can carry six YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles. The bomber deployment is intended to deter U.S. military activity in the region, reported the state-run Global Times. The deployment may have taken place just before three U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth strategic bombers deployed to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean on Aug. 12. That deployment was the first of the stealth bomber to the Indo-Pacific since January 2019, noted Air Force magazine.
North Korea—Flooding At Yongbyon Nuclear Center Poses Serious Risk To Reactors 38 North | 08/14/2020 Major flooding along the Kuryong River in North Korea earlier this month placed two nuclear reactors at risk, reports 38 North, a website operated by the Henry Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., that monitors North Korea. Satellite photos of the Yonbyong nuclear complex taken on Aug. 6, showed that the flooding did not breach the facility's security perimeter, but had inundated the pump houses that serve the 5 MWe and experimental light water reactors. The 5 MWe reactor does not appear to have been operating for some time, while the experimental reactor has not yet been activated, analysts said. Nevertheless, future flooding could damage the pump stations or clog their intakes, forcing the operators to shut down the reactors due to the loss of coolant. Additional imagery from Aug. 8 and Aug. 11 indicated that the waters had receded, suggesting that the major facilities at the complex, including a uranium enrichment plant, had not been damaged. North Korea has been working to improve the embankment along the river near the complex to reduce the risk of annual floods. The defenses proved insufficient this year, analysts said.
Japan—Global Hawk Purchase In The Crosshairs As Priorities Change Jiji Press | 08/14/2020 Japan is looking at terminating a planned purchase of surveillance drones from the U.S., reports the Jiji Press (Tokyo). On Thursday, a source close to the government said that plans to acquire three RQ-4 Global Hawk aircraft and field them in 2021 are being reviewed. The decision is spurred by the need to cut costs and concerns that the U.S. Air Force's proposed retirement of its Block 20 and Block 30 Global Hawks would lead to higher maintenance costs. The retirement would leave Japan and South Korea as the only operators of Block 30 aircraft, the source said. Congress has moved to halt the retirement plans in its latest defense appropriations bill. Tokyo is watching developments closely. The high procurement costs and Japan's changing defense priorities are also influencing the deliberations. The Global Hawks are intended to help monitor North Korea and remote islands but would be of little use in a potential conflict with China, noted experts.
Taiwan—Cabinet Proposes 4.4 Percent Defense Budget Boost Taipei Times | 08/14/2020 Taiwan's Cabinet has put forward a 4.4 percent boost in defense spending in its fiscal 2021 budget proposal, reports the Taipei Times. The budget request released on Thursday includes US$12.46 billion for defense, an increase of US$530 million over 2020. Requested defense spending increases to US$15.4 billion if a special budget measure for the purchase of F-16V fighter jets is included. The defense ministry said the increase was primarily due to increases in maintenance costs and investment. The request is expected to be approved by the legislature, which is controlled by President Tsai Ing-wen's Democratic Progressive Party, reported Reuters. Defense ministry officials cited by the Kyodo news agency (Tokyo) said that priorities under the budget include personnel, maintenance and investment, including the development of asymmetric capabilities and combat equipment.
India—Defense Acquisition Council Approves Procurements Worth US$1.2 Billion Hindustan Times | 08/14/2020 India's defense procurement authority has approved several new equipment purchases, reports the Hindustan Times (New Delhi). On Tuesday, the Defense Acquisition Council approved acquisitions of basic trainer aircraft, tank ammunition, naval gun mounts, assault rifles and drone upgrades with a combined value of US$1.2 billion. The largest approval covered the acquisition of 106 HTT-40 domestically designed trainer aircraft. The air force is expected to order 70 aircraft initially, with another 36 to follow once the plane enters service. The authorization is the first step toward a purchase, with several steps still to go, analysts said. The HTT-40 has completed a range of trials demonstrating that it meets Indian air force requirements. Hindustan Aeronautics could launch production as soon as 2021, officials said. Other approvals covered 127-mm super rapid gun mounts for the Indian navy; 125-mm armor-piercing, fin-stabilized, discarding-sabot (APFSDS) tank rounds; accelerated AK-203 assault rifle purchases; and upgrades for uncrewed aerial vehicles, reported Jane's Defence Weekly.
India—2 Police Killed In Kashmir Attack Hindustan Times | 08/14/2020 Two police officers have been killed in a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, reports the Hindustan Times. On Friday, unknown militants opened fire on a police patrol in the Nowgam area of Srinagar. Three officers were hit and transferred to the hospital. Two succumbed to their wounds. The militants fled the scene, reported NDTV. Vijay Kumar, the police inspector for Kashmir, blamed the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group for the attack. Kumar said an operation was being planned to target the perpetrators, reported the Asia News International. Additional government troops deployed to the area following the attack, reported Xinhua, China's state-run news agency. Tensions are high ahead of India's independence day celebration on Saturday.
Afghanistan—Government Begins Release Of 400 High-Value Taliban Prisoners TOLONews | 08/14/2020 The Afghan government has begun releasing 400 Taliban fighters previously deemed to dangerous to be freed, reports the Tolo News (Kabul). On Thursday, about 80 high-value prisoners were released from Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul as part of an agreement between the Taliban and the U.S., said the National Security Council. Their release was approved last week by the consultative Loya Jirga. The council said that it hoped the move would accelerate ongoing cease-fire talks in Doha, Qatar, reported Agence France-Presse. About 400 Taliban prisoners on the Taliban list of 5,000 to be released under the agreement with the U.S. remained in government jails. Of them, about 139 were accused of murder or kidnapping that led to murder. The list included 156 Taliban prisoners who have been sentenced to death, with their fate uncertain. Australia, France and the U.S. have expressed concern about the release of some of the prisoners.
Israel—Agreement Reached With U.A.E. To Normalize Relations Cable News Network | 08/14/2020 Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to normalize relations, reports CNN. On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced the agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Emirati Crown Prince and de-facto leader Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. A formal agreement will be signed in the coming weeks, according to a joint statement posted to social media. The countries will sign a range of bilateral accords covering "investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare, culture, the environment, the establishment of reciprocal embassies and other areas of mutual benefit," said the statement, as quoted by NPR News. Emirati citizens will be able to visit the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, reported the Jerusalem Post. As part of the agreement, Israel will immediately suspend plans to annex additional territory in the West Bank. Palestinian leaders rejected the accord and said they would recall their ambassador from Abu Dhabi. The United Arab Emirates is the third country to normalize ties with Israel, joining Egypt and Jordan. Israeli public media cited by Turkey's Anadolu Agency indicated that a similar deal with Bahrain may be in the works.
Israel—Jets Head To Germany For Joint Exercise Agence France-Presse | 08/14/2020 Israeli fighter jets are on their way to Germany to participate in their first joint exercise there with the Luftwaffe, reports Agence France-Presse. The Blue Wings 2020 drills are scheduled from Aug. 17 to Aug. 28, the German military said on Thursday. During their time in Germany, Israeli jets will fly over the Fuerstenfeldbruck airbase to commemorate the 1972 attack on the Summer Olympic Games in Munich, in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed. Israeli personnel are also slated to visit the Dachau concentration camp and participate in a wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate victims of the Holocaust. Last year, the Luftwaffe sent a contingent to an exercise in the Negev desert in southern Israel.
Ethiopia—Government Faces Off With Former Ruling Party Over Elections Voice Of America News | 08/14/2020 The Ethiopian government and the political party that ruled the country for decades prior to 2018 are at loggerheads over the holding of elections, reports the Voice of America News. The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) has announced that it will hold its own regional elections after Addis Ababa postponed this year's national elections due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The government says the move would violate the constitution. The TPLF says it can hold the vote under articles in the Ethiopian constitution that grant the Tigray region self-determination rights. The TPLF says the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, which it left last year, is seeking to maintain its hold on power by indefinitely delaying national elections. TPLF officials have also indicated that the region is prepared to defend itself militarily if the government tries to use force. The party has held several military parades in apparent shows of force. Abiy has said that the government has no desire to use force "against belligerent regional governments."
Nigeria—Boko Haram Recruiting Child Soldiers, Says MNJTF News Agency Of Nigeria | 08/14/2020 The Boko Haram militant group has begun recruiting child soldiers to refill its ranks following recent losses, reports the News Agency of Nigeria. The insurgent group has begun using child soldiers in the Lake Chad basin after a recent mass surrender of Boko Haram fighters to the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a task force spokesman said on Thursday. Intelligence and a recently released video from Boko Haram confirmed the use of the child soldiers, he said. The group is focusing on children due to the ease in indoctrinating and manipulating them to join the group, said the spokesman. . .
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