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Adm. Chester Nimitz, the U.S. commander in the Pacific, authorized an operation to shoot down Yamamoto’s plane. Some sixty-eight years before U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden, America conducted an assassination of another kind.This time, the target wasn’t a terrorist. It was the Japanese admiral who planned the Pearl Harbor operation. But the motive was the same: payback for a sneak attack on the United States.(This article originally appeared last year.)Recommended: America Has Military Options for North Korea (but They’re All Bad)Recommended: 1,700 Planes Ready for War: Everything You Need To Know About China’s Air ForceRecommended: Stealth vs. North Korea’s Air Defenses: Who Wins? In early 1943, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Japanese Navy, was one of the most hated men in America. He was seen as the Asian Devil in naval dress, the fiend who treacherously struck peaceful, sleeping America. And when the United States saw a chance for payback in April 1943, there was no hesitation. Hence a code name unmistakable in its intent: Operation Vengeance.As with today’s drone strikes, the operation began with an intercepted message. Except it wasn’t a call from a cell phone, but rather a routine military radio signal. In the spring of 1943, Japan was in trouble: the Americans had captured Guadalcanal despite a terrible sacrifice of Japanese ships and aircraft. Stung by criticism that senior commanders were not visiting the front to ascertain the situation, Yamamoto resolved to visit naval air units on the South Pacific island of Bougainville.As was customary, a coded signal was sent on April 13, 1943, to the various Japanese commands in the area, listing the admiral’s itinerary as well as the number of transport planes and fighter escorts in his party. But American codebreakers had been reading Japanese diplomatic and military messages for years, including those in the JN-25 code, used in various forms by the Imperial Navy throughout World War II. The Yamamoto signal was sent in the new JN-25D variant, but that didn’t stop American cryptanalysts from deciphering it in less than a day.Adm. Chester Nimitz, the U.S. commander in the Pacific, authorized an operation to shoot down Yamamoto’s plane. With typical spleen, Pacific Fleet commander William “Bull” Halsey issued his own unambiguous message: “TALLY HO X LET’S GET THE BASTARD.”Yet getting Yamamoto was easier said than done. Navy and Marine fighters like the F4F Wildcat and F4U Corsair didn’t have the range to intercept Yamamoto’s aircraft over Bougainville, four hundred miles from the nearest American air base on Guadalcanal. The only fighter with long enough legs was the U.S. Army Air Forces’ twin-engined Lockheed P-38G Lightning.But even the P-38s faced a difficult task. To avoid detection, American planners wanted them to fly “at least 50 miles offshore of these islands, which meant dead-reckoning over 400 miles over water at fifty feet or less, a prodigious feat of navigation,” according to a history of the Thirteenth Fighter Command, the parent organization of the 339th Fighter Squadron that flew the mission.Even worse, the Lightnings had no AWACS radar aircraft or land-based radar to guide them to the target, or even to tell them where Yamamoto’s plane was. Nor could the U.S. aircraft loiter over Bougainville in the midst of numerous Japanese fighter bases. They would essentially have to intercept Yamamoto where and when he was scheduled to be.However, by calculating the speed of the Japanese G4M Betty bomber that would carry Yamamoto, probable wind speed, the enemy’s probable flight path, and assuming that Yamamoto would be as punctual as he was reputed to be, American planners estimated the intercept would occur at 9:35 a.m.The Americans assigned eighteen P-38s for the mission, of which a flight of four would pounce on Yamamoto’s plane, while the remainder would climb above as top cover against Japanese fighters. Two Lightnings aborted on the way to Bougainville, leaving just sixteen to perform the mission.That the Americans arrived just a minute early, at 9:34, was remarkable. Even more remarkable was that the Japanese appeared on time a minute later. Flying at 4,500 feet were two Betty bombers, one carrying Yamamoto and the other his chief of staff, Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki. They were escorted by six A6M Zero fighters keeping watch 1,500 feet above them.Still undetected, twelve Lightnings climbed to eighteen thousand feet. The remaining four attacked the Bettys, with the first pair, flown by Capt. Thomas Lanphier Jr. and Lt. Rex Barber, closing in for the kill. As the two bombers dived to evade the interceptors, the American pilots couldn’t even be sure which one carried Yamamoto.Lanphier engaged the escorts while Barber pursued the two bombers. Barber’s cannon shells and bullets slammed into the first Betty, an aircraft model notorious for being fragile and flammable. With its left engine damaged, it slammed into the jungle. Then the second Betty, attacked by three of the P-38s, crashed into the water. The Americans had lucked out again: the Betty that crashed into the jungle, killing its crew and passengers, had carried Yamamoto. From the Betty that hit the water, Admiral Ugaki survived (hours after Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945, Ugaki took off in a kamikaze and was never heard from again).A Japanese search party hacked through the jungle until they found Yamamoto’s plane. “Afterward the Admiral’s body and the others were cremated and the ashes put into boxes,” recounts the Thirteenth Fighter Command history. “His cremation pit was filled, and two papaya trees, his favorite fruit, were planted on the mound. A shrine was erected, and Japanese naval personnel cared for the graves until the end of the war.”Yamamoto’s remains were returned to Japan aboard the super battleship Musashi in May 1943 for a state funeral that drew a million mourners. For the Americans, euphoria and satisfaction were dogged by postwar controversy that lasted for sixty years over who actually shot down Yamamoto’s plane: Barber and Lanphier were credited with a half kill apiece, though many critics said Barber should have received full credit.The irony was that Yamamoto was not the worst of America’s enemies. He was no pacifist, but nor was he as militaristic as the hard-core Japanese hard-liners. Yamamoto opposed the 1940 alliance with Nazi Germany, which he feared would drag Japan into a ruinous war. While he didn’t oppose war as a means of saving Japan from a crippling U.S. oil embargo in 1941 (his depiction as a peacemonger in the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! is wrong), he did warn Japanese leaders that “in the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain, I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.”Did Yamamoto’s death affect the war? His Pearl Harbor operation was audacious and brilliant, but his poor strategy at Midway six months later destroyed Japan’s elite aircraft carrier force (ironically, it was also U.S. codebreaking that set the stage for the Midway disaster). By 1943, he was a sick and exhausted man. Perhaps he might have come up with a better late-war naval strategy than the disastrous battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf. Yet not even the architect of Pearl Harbor could save Japan from defeat.Yamamoto’s assassination is still significant because it has been cited as a precedent for today’s drone strikes. To be clear, there is no doubt that assassinating Yamamoto was legal according to the laws of war. He was an enemy soldier in uniform, flying in an enemy military aircraft that was attacked by uniformed U.S. military personnel in marked military aircraft. This is nothing new. In 1942, British commandos unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Rommel, and modern militaries devote great efforts to locating enemy headquarters to kill commanders and staffs.But what’s really interesting is that compared with the controversy over today’s targeted assassinations, there was remarkably little fuss made over the decision to kill Yamamoto. The U.S. military treated it as a purely military matter that didn’t need civilian approval. Admiral Nimitz authorized the interception, and the orders were passed down the military chain of command. There was no presidential decision nor Justice Department review. It’s hard to imagine that the killing of a top Al Qaeda leader, let alone a top Russian, Chinese or North Korean commander, would be treated so routinely.Yamamoto’s death was significant on the symbolic level. But in military terms, he was just another casualty of war.Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook.Image: Creative Commons
August 29, 2019Read More
Sterling sinks as investors fear the worst is yet to come FTSE opens higher after outperforming on yesterday, with energy giants, supermarkets and pharma stocks doing the heavy lifting Asian stocks pared losses while US stocks staged a late rally last night, closing near session highs Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Italy’s Matteo Salvini is a more dangerous threat to the EU outside government 8:34AM European markets find a groove after slow open Europe’s blue-chip stock markets, despite a slightly stumbling start, have found their groove, and are all up this morning. Italy’s FTSe MiB is outperforming as expected, currently up over 1pc. The FTSE 250, London’s mid-cap index, is down slightly, with big weights from Amigo and Hays following announcements this morning. Consumer credit company Amigo missed expectations, and has cut its forecasts. Sterling is slightly off, falling against other major currencies for the second day in a row amid a growing crisis in Westminster. Oanda’s Craig Erlam said: Naturally, the more convincing Boris is, the faster the pound falls. Put simply, no-deal is the most severe form of Brexit and until we better understand how it will be handled, worst case scenarios will continue to be priced in. Brexit may have already taken a heavy toll on sterling but darker days probably lie ahead for the currency. 7:59AM Italian set for relief rally with elections (probably) averted Italian Democratic Party Nicola Zingaretti, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Industry Minister and deputy PM Luigi Di Maio Credit: VINCENZO PINTO/ AFP Italian futures trading is is alone in looking positive this morning, with events in Rome likely to spill into a relief rally. After days of talks, leftist Five Star (MS5) and Democratic Party (PD) lawmakers agreed to form a coalition, which will maintain the theoretically neutral figure of Giuseppe Conte as Prime Minister. The decision is expected to get the go-ahead soon. That puts paid to right-wing populist Matteo Salvini’s ambitions for the job, for now. More importantly for markets, it dispels the uncertainty that a fresh general election would have entailed. How the Left can block out Salvini Read more: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Italy’s Matteo Salvini is a more dangerous threat to the EU outside government 7:32AM Agenda: Pound plunge and car industry stuck in reverse Anti-Brexit protesters gathered outside Parliament yesterday Credit: Vudi Xhymshiti/AP Good morning. The pound suffered one of its sharpest tumbles of the year yesterday as City analysts warned that Boris Johnson’s plan to suspend Parliament will send the currency even lower in the coming weeks. It later recovered some ground, while the FTSE 100 seemed unhinged from sterling’s movements. 5 things to start your day 1) Car production in the UK is stuck in reverse, falling 10.6pc in July —the 14th consecutive month of decline as Brexit and global economic uncertainties weigh. A total of 108,239 cars rolled off British production lines during the month, taking the year to date output to 774,760, almost a fifth down on the same point in 2018. 2) Running out of puff: the merger of tobacco giants Philip Morris and Altria faces uphill battle. Falling income. Hankering after faded glory days. An effort to stay relevant amid changing trends. In the music industry, getting the band’s original line-up back together is one of the oldest tricks in the book but often it says more about the absence of fresh ideas than the promise of renewed success. The numbers behind the Philip Morris-Altria mega-merger 3) Britain’s offshore wind farms are about to get bigger after the Crown Estate decided that seven sites could comfortably expand their operations without posing any threat to the environment. The expansion will add 2.85 GW to the UK’s wind farm capacity, equating to an extra 10pc in the UK’s offshore wind farm capacity. 4) WH Smith is making more money from its shops in hospitals than from those in train stations as it told the City it expects to meet its profit targets. The retailer has been increasingly focusing on lucrative travel locations such as airports and railways stations, while its high street shops have seen sales dwindle in recent years. Markets Hub – WH Smith PLC 5) Toyota is taking a 5pc slice of its smaller Japanese rival Suzuki in the latest tie-up in the global car industry. It will pay 96bn yen (£740m) for the stake, while Suzuki will fork out 46bn yen for 0.2pc of Toyota. What happened overnight Asian markets sank again on Thursday as investors grow increasingly pessimistic about the outlook for China-US trade talks, while a closely watched recession indicator hit a level not seen since just before the financial crisis. The pound remained under pressure after Prime Minister Boris Johnson forced an extended suspension of parliament, heightening the prospect of a no-deal Brexit and leading to speculation of a snap no-confidence vote. Wall Street provided a healthy lead but investors in Asia remain on edge after the weekend’s face-off between China and the US that saw each side impose tariffs on hundreds of billions of goods, and Donald Trump label Xi Jinping at one point an “enemy”. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 0.4pc, the Shanghai Composite retreated 0.1pc and Tokyo was flat. Coming up today Haulage firm Eddie Stobart had been due to report half-year results today, but has pushed the date back to an expected date of “early September” after its shares were suspended on Friday. Recruitment firm Hays, something of a bellwether for the wider economy, will report its full-year results. Full-year results: Hays Interim results: Chesnara, Hunting, the Gym Group, Knot Offshore Trading statement: Amigo, McColl’s Retail Economics: GDP (US), trade balance (US)
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A few wave German flags as they gather for a rally with leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Supporters of the party, which hopes to make big gains Sunday in two state elections, are quick to blame Chancellor Angela Merkel and her c…
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In reporting on the annual rotation of People’s Liberation Army forces in Hong Kong, Xinhua said they “are determined to resolutely protect national sovereignty, security and development interests.”
August 29, 2019Read More
European Union ministers on Thursday urged Britain to choose an orderly Brexit, with some openly expressing concern that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s move to suspend parliament increased the risk of a chaotic split. As EU foreign and defence ministe…
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(Bloomberg) — Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Germany is looking to cap its corporate tax burden at 25% as the country seeks to help smaller businesses amid signs the economy is lurchi…
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(Bloomberg) — Chinese President Xi Jinping will deliver a major speech to mark 70 years since the official founding of the People’s Republic of China, the government announced on Thursday.The speech on Oct. 1 will be accompanied by a national day para…
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(Bloomberg) — Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper urged Japan and South Korea to end their escalating feud, in the latest indication that the Trump admini…
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Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday the United States must observe the 2015 nuclear deal and stop engaging in “economic terrorism” against the Iranian people if Washington wants to meet for talks. Tensions between Tehran and …
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Stealth was a foundational feature of the F-22, and the plane’s stealthy profile was in part dictated by simulations done on the Cray supercomputer, an early supercomputer. Russia’s official designation of the PAK-FA/T-50 jet as the Sukhoi Su-57 is just another reminder that the field of fifth generation fighters is about to get more crowded. The United States, China, Russia, Japan and Korea are all working on their own fifth generation designs, but so far only three planes, the F-22 Raptor, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Chinese J-20 are operational. Increased tensions between the United States and NATO on one side and Russia on the other have people wondering: once the Su-57 does become operational, how will it stack up against the F-22 Raptor?The F-22 Raptor started life as a dedicated air superiority fighter in the same vein as the F-15C Eagle, the aircraft it was originally slated to replace. The aircraft was designed and built by Lockheed Martin, which had early experience building the first operational stealth warplane, the F-117A Nighthawk stealth “fighter”. In 1990, the prototype YF-22 fighter engaged in a flyoff with the Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II and won the competition, in large extent due to its emphasis on stealth and maneuverability.(This first appeared in 2017.)Why North Korea’s Air Force is Total Junk Stealth was a foundational feature of the F-22, and the plane’s stealthy profile was in part dictated by simulations done on the Cray supercomputer, an early supercomputer. The F-22 design maximized sensor evasion, with diamond-shaped wings and sharp, faceted surfaces. The speed brake, weapon bay doors and engine exhausts are serrated to minimize the aircraft’s radar signature while the large, vertical, canted tails reduce the fighter’s infrared signature from certain angles. The aircraft’s metallic surfaces are also coated with radar-absorbent materials and paint.Why Doesn’t America Kill Kim Jong Un? The use of the Cray supercomputer helped make the F-22 highly maneuverable, especially at high angles of attack. A key F-22 feature is the use of thrust vectoring in the pitch axis, allowing the aircraft to combine engine power with maneuver at high angles of attack to gain an advantage in dogfights. The large bubble canopy was the largest single of piece of polycarbonate made while the F-22 was in production, and gave the pilot excellent visibility. The combination of maneuverability and visibility mean a pilot can detect and react to visual range threats quickly and decisively.The F-22 Is Getting a New Job: SniperThe F-22 is powered by a pair of F119 afterburning turbofan engines that produces a total 70,000 pounds of thrust, forty percent more than the F-15 Eagle. The engines allow the Raptor to supercruise at Mach 1.4 without afterburners, enhancing the aircraft’s range—an important consideration for a plane that can’t carry external fuel tanks into battle. The aircraft’s primary sensor, the AN/APG-77 radar, is designed to out-range enemy threats, detecting and classifying them before they detect the Raptor, allowing the American jet to not only see first, but shoot first.The Raptor has three weapons bays, two of which can accommodate one AIM-9M/X Sidewinder infrared guided missile and a second belly bay that can accommodate six AIM-120 AMRAAM (“Slammer”) radar-guided missiles with a range of up to sixty-five miles. The center bay can also carry JDAM satellite-guided munitions or up to four 600 gallon fuel tanks. The F-22 has a M61A2 six-barreled, twenty-millimeter Gatling gun buried in the right wing root with enough ammunition for just under five seconds of sustained fire.Much less is known about the Sukhoi Su-57. Despite seven years of test flights, many details about the aircraft remain unknown. What is known is that Sukhoi has struggled to develop the aircraft, particularly key components such as the engine. The first operational aircraft are slated to join the Russian Aerospace Forces in 2019.Although both are fifth generation fighters, the Su-57 significantly differs in design philosophy from the F-22 Raptor. In the key areas of speed, maneuverability and stealth, the Raptor emphasized maneuverability and stealth. The Su-57, on the other hand, places an emphasis on maneuverability and speed, arguably making it similar to the YF-23 Black Widow II.Experts believe the Su-57 is an evolution of the Su-27 Flanker’s shape, modernized for low radar observability but also even greater maneuverability. Aviation author Piotr Butowski claims that aircraft’s high static instability has “much more maneuverability at supersonic speeds than any previous fighter.” The blended wing design increases internal volume for avionics, fuel and weapons.A major driver of the Su-57’s performance are its two engines. The Saturn izdeliye 30 engines are each meant to generate between 24,054 and 35,556 pounds of thrust, with the high end in the same territory as the F-22’s F119 engines. These are meant to drive the fighter to speeds of up to Mach 1.5 in supercruise. Unfortunately the izdeliye 30 is undergoing difficulties, and as a result the first twelve of Moscow’s new jets will be powered by a pair of Saturn AL-41F1 afterburning turbofans producing a combined 65,000 pounds of thrust, the same engines that power the Su-35.The Su-57 will equip with the N056 Byelka (“squirrel”) radar system and the L402 electronic countermeasures suite. L-band arrays will be the fighter’s primary means of detecting stealth aircraft, while at shorter ranges the 101KS Atoll electro-optical suite, including an infrared search and track system, will help the pilot track and engage targets with infrared guided missiles.The Su-57 has two large internal weapons bays arranged in tandem, taking up virtually the entire useable length of the aircraft. Each bay can carry up to four K-77M beyond visual range radar-guided missiles. Compared to earlier versions of the K-77 (NATO nickname: AA-12 Archer) the K-77M missile has a larger body and active electronically-scanned array radar seeker, allowing it to engage highly agile targets at ranges of up to 100 miles. The aircraft also stores a pair of K-74M2 short-range infrared guided missiles in underwing fairings.How would the F-22 and Su-57 fare in a head to head engagement? The design priorities of the two aircraft give the two aircraft different advantages at different ranges. The Su-57’s priorities and armament lend themselves to detection and elimination of threats at long ranges. Key to this strategy, the Su-57’s radar must be able to detect stealth jets at long ranges. The aircraft’s emphasis on speed allows it to respond quickly—or back out quickly from fights it cannot win. Once the two opposing fighters close to visual range however the Su-57’s combination of maneuverability and infra-red search and track will make it a lethal opponent.The F-22 Raptor, on the other hand, emphasizes stealth and maneuverability. The F-22 can also detect adversaries at long ranges, and provided it can evade enemy radar can act to set up an ambush before the enemy knows it is in the area. Thus the F-22 has more of a likelihood of gaining the initiative early on and winning the battle before the two jets can come within visual range of one another. Key to the Raptor’s strategy, the F-22’s stealth must protect it from the prying eyes of Russian radars. In a dogfight it’s difficult to know who would prevail, given we don’t know how maneuverable the Su-57 is, but the Russian jet’s infrared search and track system—something the American stealth fighter doesn’t have—will be a major bonus in combat.The F-22 Raptor is an excellent, world-beating aircraft that sits on the very top of the heap. The Su-57 as a challenger could prove as good, in different ways, and a worthy opponent for the first fifth generation fighter to gain operational status. If the two ever meet it will be a battle for the ages, but our world will be much worse for it. Let’s hope all we ever get do is speculate about the meeting.Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the Daily Beast. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. You can follow him on Twitter: @KyleMizokami.Image: Pinterest.
August 29, 2019Read More
The World Health Organization says there has been a “dramatic resurgence” of measles in Europe, in part fueled by vaccine refusals, with nearly 90,000 people sickened by the virus in the first half of 2019. In a report issued Thursday, the U.N. health…
August 29, 2019Read More
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