Diplomacy & Crisis News

Sebastien Roblin

Essex-class,

​The Essex’s best defense and offense came from the new generation of aircraft she carried, all with ranges of a thousand miles or longer.

Here's What You Need To Remember: The decades of operational service provided by the venerable Essex carriers testified both to the robustness of their design, and their effectiveness as platforms of the U.S. naval power.

Perhaps no vessel embodies the U.S. Navy’s embrace of the aircraft carrier as the centerpiece of its strategy as the Essex-class carrier. Between 1943 and 1950, twenty-four of the thirty-thousand-ton carriers were built at shipyards in Newport News, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Norfolk and Braintree—some completed in as few as fourteen months. This makes the Essex the most extensively produced capital ship class in the twentieth century.

The Navy’s earlier carriers were limited in size due to the Washington Naval Treaty signed in 1922, with an exception granted for two battlecruisers converted into carriers with displacements of thirty thousand tons (in U.S. service, the Lexington-class).

Though lacking combat experience, the Navy tested its carriers extensively in wargames and gained a decent idea of their revolutionary. So did Japan, which withdrew from the Naval Treaty in 1934 to build up its forces up for planned future conquests.

Reciprocally freed from the treaty’s restriction, in 1940 the Navy set out to build a larger carriers than its latest Yorktown-class. Though the U.S. was over a year away from involvement in World War II, naval engineers grasped the qualities a fully-capable carrier needed: when it came to ‘flattops’, bigger was actually better.

The 30,000 ton Essex was finally commissioned on December 31, 1942, measuring 265 meters in length and displacing 31,300 tons with the hull reinforced by as much as four inches of Special Treatment Steel armor. Four twin and four-single five-inch gun turrets used two fire-control radars to blast aerial threats up to seven miles away using proximity-fused air-bursting shells. Additionally, sixty rapid-firing twenty-millimeter cannons and seventeen quad-barrel forty-millimeter Bofors guns provided close protection.

Additional air- and surface-search radars gave the carriers advance warning of approaching threats while helping manage friendly forces in the battlespace. A new side-mounted elevator gave the carriers better flexibility, particular in the event that the elevator was jammed by battle damage.

She and her sisterships officially had crew complements of 2,300 personnel, though often sailed with more than 3,000. Eight huge boilers generating temperatures of 850 degrees Fahrenheit turned four steam turbines for electrical power and propulsion, allowing the hulking carrier to achieve 33 knots under full power.

The Essex’s best defense and offense came from the new generation of aircraft she carried, all with ranges of a thousand miles or longer. Agile F6F Hellcat finally helped the Navy win air superiority over maneuverable, but fragile A6M Zero. Faster SB2C Helldiver bomber could heft up to two-thousand pounds of bombs internally, and another thousand underwing. And tubby three-man TBF Avengers could launch deadly torpedo attacks, and also proved effective as radar-equipped submarine hunters and airborne early warning plane. The air groups typically boasted two squadron each of Hellcats and Helldivers and a squadron of Avengers.

The Essex’s larger deck allowed two squadrons to be “spotted” for takeoff on the flight deck, while a third readied its engines on the open hangar deck below. As aircraft carried progressively heavier weapons loads, they began to make more extensive use of the Essex’s two to three steam catapults to achieve necessary takeoff speed. An enlarged store of 240,000 gallons of aviation fuel enabled extended flight operations.

Starting with the Ticonderoga laid down in 1943, new long-hull Essex carriers entered service with a flared ‘clipper bow meant to handle rough weather more smoothly. The long-hull ships boasted additional anti-aircraft guns and improved radars, and had their refueling and air vents reconfigured for improved survivability, and the ship’s Combat Information Center moved below deck. In fact, as Essex carriers received near continuous upgrades to their radars, guns and catapults, no two came to be exactly alike.

The Essex carriers were thrust into the cauldron of the Pacific War which had already consumed five of the eight fleet carriers the Navy began the conflict with. Many of the Essex class vessels were renamed after recently sunk carriers (Yorktown, Lexington, Wasp, Hornet, Independence) as well as other famous ships and historic battles.

Initially they primarily served as floating airstrips to pound fortified Japanese islands in the United States’ relentless island-hopping campaign. However, in June 1944 six Essex class-carrier engaged Japanese counterparts in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, sinking three Japanese carriers and shooting down around six hundred aircraft in the so-called “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.” The U.S. Navy lost 123 combat aircraft and no ships.

Fourth months later, four Essex-class carriers covering the U.S. landing on the Philippines fought off three separate Japanese fleets in the epic Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history. Aircraft from the Essex and Franklin (as well as from the Yorktown-class Enterprise) sank the Japanese battleship Musashi, the largest battleship ever built. Again, the Essex-class carriers survived Japanese counterattacks unscathed thanks to effective Combat Air Patrols.

However, in the final year of the war Japan launched increasing numbers of Kamikaze attacks that succeeded in penetrating the Essex’s formidable air defense screens. On May 11, 1945, while providing air support for the invasion of Okinawa, the Bunker Hill was simultaneously struck by two Zeroes also carrying bombs, the massive explosions killing 390 crew. She nonetheless managed to return to Pearl Harbor for repairs on her own power.

Another Essex-class carrier, the USS Intrepid, survived being hit by four Kamikaze attacks as detailed in this earlier article.

Earlier, on March 19, 1945, the Franklin was struck by two armor piercing bombs dropped by a lone D4Y “Judy” dive bomber, setting off an chain reaction of exploding bomb and fuel laden aircraft that killed over eight hundred crew. Remarkably, Franklin captain refused to abandon ship and managed to nurse her back to port, having suffered the heaviest casualties for any U.S. Navy ship not lost in action. You can see footage of the Franklin’s ordeal in this 1945 documentary.

Ultimately, not one Essex-class carrier was lost during World War II. The close of hostilities saw the cancelation of eight planned Essex carriers. But most of the remaining twenty-four would lead long and eventful service lives.

The Navy reconfigured its Essexes with angled flight decks (increasing their weight to forty-seven thousand tons) and mirror landing systems to help operate faster and heavier jet fighters like he F9F Panther and the FJ Fury, serving alongside trusted piston-engine fighters like the Corsair and the beastly A-1 Skyraider. Helicopters were also added for search-and-rescue duties.

Eleven of the Essex carriers saw action in the Korean War, hitting ground targets in North Korea. In one incident in 1952, a Panther launched from the Essex-class Oriskany shot down four Soviet jets in an aerial skirmish over the Sea of Japan.

A decade later the Essex’s continued to serve, now with Skyhawk attack jets, speedy F-8 Crusader fighters, which saw action in the Vietnam War, with A-1s from the Intrepid even improbably shooting down a MiG-17 jet fighter. The carriers were also extensively employed to recover NASA space capsules and astronauts. However, the Essexes were being replaced by new nuclear-powered carriers.

However, the Oriskany—the last Essex-class vessel launched in a heavily modified configuration—endured the class’s final ordeal when a mishandled flare tossed into an ammunition locker ignited a fire that vented poisonous fumes throughout the ship, killing forty-four.

While most of Essex-class vessels were decommissioned in the 1970s, the last still in service, the USS Lexington, remained active as a training ship until 1991. Four of the World War II fleet carriers still serve as museum ships in New York, South Carolina, Texas, and California. The decades of operational service provided by the venerable carriers testified both to the robustness of their design, and their effectiveness as platforms of the U.S. naval power.

Sébastien Roblin holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. (This first appeared last year.) 

Daniel R. DePetris

North Korea Missiles, Asia

Perhaps Kim Jong-un is sending a message to the Biden administration that Washington’s maximalist demands need to change.

North Korean missile tests have a familiar, almost cyclical, pattern to them. If Pyongyang launches a projectile toward the East Sea, then Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo immediately condemn the action as a violation of UN Security Council Resolutions and a dangerous provocation threatening regional peace. The pattern occurred yet again last night when the North sent two ballistic missiles into the air days after its previous test of short-range cruise missiles over the weekend. The South Korean government called an emergency session of the National Security Council, as it always does. Japan, which has a government that is far more hardline toward the North than its South Korean neighbor, reacted with a mix of alarm and indignation. The launch “threatens the peace and security of our nation and the region and violates U.N. resolutions,” Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga said. “We are determined to protect our citizens’ lives and peaceful livelihoods at all cost, and will work closely with other countries including the U.S. and South Korea.”

While analysts on social media were giving the usual explanations about what North Korea may be up to—perhaps Kim Jong-un is trying to gain additional leverage over the United States before nuclear negotiations resume? Perhaps Kim is sending a message to the Biden administration that Washington’s maximalist demands need to change. Business in the North was churning along as it always has.

Those of us in the United States tend to jump to the conclusion that North Korean actions in the military realm are directly intertwined with Washington’s own. If the United States caused Pyongyang to lash out with a new volley of missiles, then surely Washington has the capability to convince the Kim dynasty to refrain from launching more?

The problem, unfortunately, is that there are some things even the United States—the preeminent power in the world—can’t control. North Korea may be a perpetually weak and struggling state with a GDP a fraction of Jeff Bezos’ net worth, but it’s also a state with a tremendous amount of pride governed by a leadership that takes paranoia to a new level. The North Koreans won’t be dictated to. When the North sets a plan for itself, it’s willing to implement that plan until Kim Jong-un is fully satisfied.

Could the latest North Korean missile test throw one more obstacle in the way of resuming diplomacy over Pyongyang’s nuclear program? While it’s certainly possible, it’s not like the North Koreans are particularly interested in going down the diplomatic route at the moment. Using various channels at its disposal, the Biden administration attempted to establish contact with the North in the hope the gesture would be reciprocated. Instead, like someone ducking robocalls, the North didn’t even bother to pick up the phone. In Washington, the lack of a response came as a disappointment. In Pyongyang, however, it doesn’t make much sense to talk when the White House is still conducting its North Korea policy review. And let’s face it: with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s repeated references to the “denuclearization of North Korea,” Pyongyang isn’t hearing anything new today that they haven’t heard over the last fifteen to twenty years.

The missile tests that have occurred over the last week are less about delivering a stern message to the United States or “challenging” the new administration in Washington than they are about implementing a plan Kim Jong-un telegraphed earlier in the year. That plan, established at the Eighth Workers Party Congress in January, entails redoubling military modernization efforts and developing the full-spectrum of missile technology, from hypersonic glide vehicles to submarine-launched, solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles. “Our external political activities must focus on controlling and subjugating the United States, our archenemy and the biggest stumbling block to the development of our revolution,” Kim told the party congress at the time. “No matter who takes power in the United States, its true nature and its policy toward our country will never change.”

To put it in the most basic terms, North Korea will continue to behave like North Korea. We have long passed the stage of being surprised.

Dan DePetris is a Fellow at Defense Priorities as well as a columnist for the Washington Examiner and The American Conservative. You can follow him on Twitter at @DanDePetris.

Image: Reuters

Although the transatlantic slave trade ended more than two centuries ago, “the ideas of white supremacy that underpinned it remain alive”, the UN chief said on Thursday, the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 

Kyle Mizokami

History, Americas

It was ultimately weather issues that did these behemoths of the sky in, not enemy fire.

Key point: World War II was won without flying aircraft carriers, proving they weren’t a war-winning asset. However, the concept has seen a revival due to the advent of drone technologies.

Nearly a hundred years ago the U.S. Navy asked a question: if airplanes can fly through the air, why couldn’t a vessel carrying them fly through the air as well? The result was the Akron-class airships, the only flying aircraft carriers put into service in any country. Although promising, a pair of accidents—prompted by the airship’s limitations—destroyed the flying carrier fleet and ended development of the entire concept.

The Akron-class airships were designed and built in the late 1920s. The ships were designed, like conventional seagoing aircraft carriers, to reconnoiter the seas and search for the enemy main battle fleet. Once the enemy fleet was located, the U.S. Navy’s battleships would close with the enemy and defeat them. This was a primitive and limiting use of the aircraft carrier, which had not yet evolved into the centerpiece of U.S. naval striking power.

The airships of the Akron class, Akron and Macon, were ordered in 1926 before the Great Depression. The two ships were commissioned into U.S. Navy service in 1931 and 1933, respectively. The Akron class was a classic pill-shaped interwar airship design, with a rigid skin made of cloth and aluminum and filled with helium. The air vessel was powered by eight Maybach twelve-cylinder engines developing a total 6,700 horsepower. At 785 feet each was longer than a Tennessee-class battleship, had a crew of just sixty each, and could cruise at fifty-five knots. The airships were lightly armed, with just eight .30 caliber machine guns.

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Unique among airships, the Akron class carried fixed-wing aircraft and could launch and recover them in flight. Each airship carried up to five Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk fighters, lightweight biplanes with a crew of one and armed with two .30 caliber Browning machine guns. The airships each concealed a hangar within their enormous airframe and launched and recovered the Sparrowhawks through a hook system that lowered them into the airstream, whereupon they would detach and fly off. The system worked in reverse to recover the tiny fighters.

The flying carrier concept had its advantages and disadvantages compared to the “traditional” seagoing carrier. Akron and Macon were twice as fast as surface ships, and could therefore cover more ground. By their very nature those onboard could see much farther over the horizon than surface ships, and their Sparrowhawks extended that range even farther. For just sixty men manning each airship the Navy had a powerful reconnaissance capability to assist the battle fleet in fighting a decisive naval battle.

The airships did have their disadvantages. Akron and Macon were both prone to the whims of weather, and could become difficult to handle in high winds: in February 1932 Akron broke away from its handlers just as a group of visiting congressmen were waiting to board. Three months later in San Diego, two sailors were thrown to their deaths and a third was injured trying to moor the airship to the ground. Bad weather grounded the airships entirely, weather a traditional seagoing warship could handle with relative ease.

On April 3, 1933 USS Akron was on a mission to calibrate its radio equipment off the coast of New Jersey when it ran into trouble. Strong winds caused the Akron to plunge 1,000 feet in a matter of seconds, and the crew made the snap decision to dump the water ballast to regain altitude. The airship ended up rising too quickly and the crew lost control. Akron crashed into the sea, killing seventy-three out of seventy-six personnel on board, including the head of the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics and the commander of Naval Air Station Lakehurst and the station’s Rigid Airship Training & Experimental Squadron.

On February 12, 1935 USS Macon was over the Pacific Ocean when a storm caused the upper fin to fail. Macon had suffered damage to the fin months earlier, but the Navy had failed to repair the damage. The collapse of the upper fin took approximately 20 percent of the ship’s helium with it, causing the airship to rapidly rise. The crew decided to release additional helium to make it sink again, but too much helium was lost and the ship descended into the ocean. Macon’s slower crash than her sister ship Akron, as well as the presence of life jackets and life preservers aboard the airship, ensured that eighty-one out of eighty-three passengers and crew survived the accident.

The loss of both airships effectively ended the flying aircraft carrier concept. It’s interesting to speculate what might have happened had the concept been further developed and survived until the Second World War. As scouts, airship carriers would not have lasted long had they accomplished their mission and located Japanese ships and bases. Oscar and Zero fighters of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy would have made short work of the delicate airships and their lightweight fighters. On the other hand, airships could have adapted to become formidable antisubmarine warfare platforms for convoy escort duty in the Atlantic Ocean, standing guard over unarmed merchantmen and fending off German u-boats with a combination of fighters and depth charges.

Regardless of speculation, World War II was won without flying aircraft carriers, proving they weren’t a war-winning asset. The concept has lain dormant for decades, but recent Pentagon research into turning the C-130 Hercules transport into a flying aircraft carrier for pilotless drones means the concept is still alive and well. The flying aircraft carrier could indeed stage a comeback, though with considerably fewer pilots involved.

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.

This first appeared in 2018 and is being reprinted due to reader interest.

COVID-19 continues to have a devastating effect on Palestinians, the Secretary-General’s envoy for the Middle East peace process told the Security Council on Thursday, urging greater support for vaccination efforts.

Paul Richard Huard

World War II,

​The machine gun fired twice as fast as any other weapon in the world at the time. This gave it a distinct sound which scared enough American troops that the War Department made a propaganda film about it.

Here's What You Need To Remember: The machine gun had its weaknesses. It used ammunition like crazy, possessed no single-shot capability and could quickly overheat. But its raw firepower did ghastly things to Germany’s enemies.

During World War II, American G.I.s called the German MG42 machine gun “Hitler’s buzz saw” because of the way it cut down troops in swaths.

The Soviet Red Army called it “the linoleum ripper” because of the unique tearing sound it made—a result of its extremely high rate of fire. The Germans called the MG42 Hitlersäge or “Hitler’s bone saw”—and built infantry tactics around squads of men armed with the weapon.

Many military historians argue that the Maschinengewehr 42 was the best general-purpose machine gun ever. It fired up to 1,800 rounds per minute in some versions. That’s nearly twice as fast as any automatic weapon fielded by any army in the world at the time.

“It sounded like a zipper,” Orville W. “Sonny” Martin, Jr., who was a second lieutenant with the U.S. Army’s 13th Armored Division, said in an oral history of infantry and armor operations in Europe. “It eats up a lot of ammunition and that makes for a logistical problem, but it eats up a lot of people, too.”

When the war began in 1939, the Germans had a solid, reliable general-purpose machine gun—the MG34. But it was expensive and difficult to manufacture.

The German high command wanted front-line troops to have more machine guns. That meant a weapon designed to deliver a high rate of fire like the MG34, but which was cheaper and quicker to produce.

Mauser-Werke developed a machine gun that fired a 7.92-millimeter Mauser cartridge fed into the gun from either a 50-round or 250-round belt. What’s more, the company manufactured the machine gun from stamped and pressed parts, welding the components together with a technique that reduced production time by 35 percent.

The MG42 had an effective range of up to 2,300 feet and weighed 25 pounds. A gun crew could change its barrel in seconds.

True, the machine gun had its weaknesses. It used ammunition like crazy, possessed no single-shot capability and could quickly overheat. But its raw firepower did ghastly things to Germany’s enemies.

The mere sound of an MG42 firing took a psychological toll on troops. The situation became so bad the U.S. Army produced a training film intended to boost the morale of U.S. soldiers terrified of the machine gun’s reputation.

In one of the film’s dramatized scenes, a green replacement gets pinned down by MG42 fire while the narrator says that nobody else in the platoon seems particularly bothered by the sound—nobody but the raw G.I. who “can’t get over the fast burp of the German gun.”

“Well, so it does have a high rate of fire,” the narrator continues. “Does that mean it is a better fighting weapon than ours?”

What comes next is a “shoot off” between various U.S. machine guns and the MG42, along with other German automatic weapons. The narrator of the training film soberly describes the accuracy and slower-but-steady rate of fire of U.S. weapons.

“The German gunner pays for his impressive rate of fire,” he intones. “But you get maximum accuracy with a rate of fire that isn’t just noise! The German gun is good—but ours is better. Their bark is worse than their bite.”

But the reality is that the MG42 bit hard, killing or grievously wounding many thousands of Allied soldiers. James H. Willbanks, author of Machine Guns: An Illustrated History of Their Impact, describes the MG42 as being nearly everywhere on the European battlefield, either in gun emplacements or vehicle-mounted on everything from halftracks to Panzers.

“The MG42 was deadly and effective in the hands of German infantry,” Willbanks writes.

The deadliness of the MG42 even shaped German infantry tactics during the war. U.S. and British tacticians emphasized the rifleman, with machine guns simply supporting infantry assaults.

Because of the MG42’s devastating power, the Germans chose the reverse. The Wehrmacht placed the machine gunner in the central infantry role, with riflemen in support.

Each MG42 ideally had a six-man crew—a commander, gunner, a soldier who carried the weapon’s tripod and three additional troops who carried spare barrels, additional ammunition and tools.

When Allied troops attempted infantry assaults against positions protected by an MG42, the German gun crew would lay down withering suppressive fire. In most cases, all the attacking infantrymen could do was wait for a barrel change, for the gun to run out of ammunition or for a tank to show up so it could blast the machine-gun nest to oblivion.

The MG42 continued to serve in the post-war West German Bundeswehr. Rechambered so it would fire the NATO 7.62-millimeter cartridge, the Germans designated the weapon the MG3. It kept its blistering rate of fire.

Today Germany and 30 other countries still use Hitler’s buzz saw.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Robert Farley

Aircraft Carriers,

Will the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) ever take the leap into nuclear propulsion for its aircraft carriers?

Here's What You Need to Remember: Credible reports confirm that the PLAN is already building at least one conventional carrier in the 80,000-ton range. Given how quickly Chinese shipbuilding has accelerated, does it make sense for the PLAN to think nuclear for its next generation of ships?

Credible reports confirm that the PLAN is already building at least one conventional carrier in the 80,000-ton range. Given how quickly Chinese shipbuilding has accelerated, does it make sense for the PLAN to think nuclear for its next generation of ships?

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Current Carriers

China has taken huge steps forward in the past decade, acquiring and modifying an old Soviet carrier, and building a new ship to the same design. China will follow up the Type 001— essentially a half-sister to Liaoning, itself a half-sister to Admiral Kuznetsov—with the Type 002. Reportedly already under construction, the Type 002 is expected to use conventional propulsion, along with a series of technological advances such as an EMALS (Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System) catapult system.

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It is unclear how many Type 002 carriers Beijing will build, although a one-off would be uncharacteristic of Chinese shipbuilding. It makes sense that the PLAN would want a pair of ships; operating the CATOBAR (Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery) Type 002 carriers will require a significantly different skill set than the first two, and it will be easier to produce that skill set with two carriers than with one. Moreover, the construction of only a single carrier could make that ship a white elephant, sitting uneasily in China’s larger strategic plan.

Nevertheless, some reports have suggested that China will take the nuclear leap for its fourth carrier. The Type 003, which largely remains on the drawing board, represents China’s real leap into the void. Expected to displace 110,000 tons, the Type 003 carriers will be the first ships since the 1950s built anywhere in the world to rival the largest, most powerful U.S. supercarriers. Although detailed expectations for the ships are not yet available, a vessel of that size could probably make thirty knots and carry in excess of seventy aircraft—much like the Nimitz or Gerald Ford classes in the United States. Experience with the Type 001 and Type 002 ships will undoubtedly feed back into the design and construction process to produce a more efficient, effective vessel. It remains unclear what kind of aircraft the Type 003 might fly, but a next generation of fighters and drones (the former perhaps based on the J-31 stealth fighter) should be available by the time the first Type 003 takes to the sea.

Why Go Nuclear?

Depending on a few strategic factors, nuclear power could make sense for the PLAN. Unlike the U.S. Navy (USN), the PLAN does not yet have access to a bewildering array of bases and maintenance facilities that can keep a carrier battle group in fighting trim. Similarly, the PLAN lacks the experience of the USN in long-range underway replenishment. A nuclear carrier doesn’t solve these problems—escorts will still need fuel, and the air group will still burn through equipment and fuel at a high rate—but a carrier that can travel long distances without refueling can help on the margins.

The other reason that nuclear power could be useful is the potential for huge power generation. Projections suggest that this will increasingly become a requirement for advanced warships, as they will depend upon lasers and other power-hungry systems for defensive and offensive weapons. It is not inconceivable, if testing and development go well, that China’s first nuclear carrier could carry lasers, railguns and other such advanced equipment.

With respect to strategic rationale, China’s maritime lines of communication lie in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. In the latter especially, China faces potentially hostile foreign powers (India, France the United Kingdom) on turf that geographically favors those countries. As the core of a task force made of cruisers, destroyers and nuclear attack submarines, a Type 003 carrier could offer a formidable presence—likely more formidable than that of any navy besides the USN. Moreover, as U.S. experience has demonstrated, large aircraft carriers are extremely flexible platforms, and can support all manner of expeditionary operations beyond their intended functions. Big decks with big reactors offer a nation reliable tools for resolving its security concerns.

Conclusion

More than a generation ago, some analysts predicted that the Soviet Union might build aircraft carriers to rival the largest ships in the U.S. Navy. This would have represented a natural progression from helicopter carriers, to V/STOL (vertical and/or short take-off and landing) carriers, to ski-jump carriers and finally to genuine CATOBAR supercarriers. Even the Soviets bought into the idea, putting together plans for massive carriers that could have challenged the USN on the high seas.

Alas, it was not to be. The Soviet Union collapsed, and its naval ambitions collapsed with it. And unexpected events might change China’s evolution, as well. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might suffer an economic downturn that would render its carrier fleet too expensive to push forward. China might decide that aircraft carriers aren’t worth the risk, given improvements in the technologies designed to destroy them. But at the moment, the PRC has decided to allow the PLAN to push forward with an extremely ambitious carrier program, one that could eventually produce a fleet second only to the USN, and that perhaps only for a time.

Robert Farley, a frequent contributor to the National Interest, is author of The Battleship Book.

Image: Reuters

Biden has named nominees for only 16 of over 300 top posts.

Ethen Kim Lieser

Stimulus Social Security,

There are still millions of Social Security recipients in urgent need of financial assistance who say they haven’t seen a dime from the stimulus checks.

As of Thursday, the Internal Revenue Service has confirmed that it has sent out one hundred twenty-seven million coronavirus relief checks—totaling roughly $750 billion—to financially struggling Americans under President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan.

Despite those lofty figures, there are still millions of Social Security recipients in urgent need of financial assistance who say they haven’t seen a dime from the stimulus checks.

The reason is apparently due to the Social Security Administration (SSA) itself, according to a letter from the House Ways and Means Committee to the benefits agency, contending that thirty million Social Security recipients are sitting empty-handed because the SSA didn’t turn over the necessary payment information to the IRS in a timely fashion.

“We understand that these beneficiaries are waiting because the Social Security Administration has not sent the necessary payment files to the Internal Revenue Service,” Reps. Richard Neal, John Larson, Bill Pascrell, and Danny Davis wrote in the letter.

“As of today, SSA still has not provided the IRS with the payment files that are needed to issue (stimulus checks) to these struggling Americans. We demand that you immediately provide the IRS with this information by tomorrow.”

In a separate letter earlier in the week, the House Ways and Means Committee wrote: “Some of our most vulnerable seniors and persons with disabilities, including veterans who served our country with honor, are unable to pay for basic necessities while they wait for their overdue payments.”

Exacerbating the entire process is that many senior citizens are finding it difficult to garner the necessary information via the IRS “Get My Payment” tool at www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment. After entering their full Social Security or tax ID number, date of birth, street address, and ZIP code, more often than not, they have been receiving a message that says, “Payment Status Not Available.”

“If you get this message, either we have not yet processed your payment, or you are not eligible for a payment,” the IRS says. “We will continue to send the 2021 Economic Impact Payment to eligible individuals throughout 2021.”

Others have received a “Need More Information” message, which means that the stimulus check was returned to the IRS because the post office was unable to deliver it. The best way to update a new address is to “file your 2020 tax return with your current address, if you haven’t already done so. Once we receive your current address, we will reissue your payment,” the IRS noted.

Some seniors have resorted to calling the IRS at 800-919-9835, but they have found it nearly impossible to get through to a live representative. “IRS live phone assistance is extremely limited at this time,” the agency states.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and many others. 

TNI Staff

Security,

Israel’s Merkvana is one of the world’s best tanks.

Here's What You Need to Remember: The disadvantage of the Armata’s unmanned turret is situational awareness. The commander cannot pop his head out of the vehicle to maximize to see. That problem could be solved by technology such as Iron Vision, but it is not clear that the Russians have that technology.

With its ongoing campaign in Syria proving to be a useful live-fire operational test and evaluation process for its latest weapons, it is perhaps not inconceivable that the Kremlin might eventually deploy the T-14 Armata main battle tank to that war-torn country.

The Russians are currently building 20 prototypes of the new tank and could build as many as 100 of the new vehicles for the Kremlin’s elite Taman Division. If the Kremlin did deploy some number of T-14s to Syria for operational evaluations under genuine combat conditions, there is a possibility the machines could face off against Israeli Merkava tanks if Tel Aviv chose to make a ground incursion into Syria.

The latest Israeli Merkava IVm Windbreaker is an excellent tank that is equipped with the Trophy active protection system (APS), Tzayad battlefield management system and advanced survivability features such as modular armor. Moreover, the Merkava IV will likely continue to improve—perhaps incorporating a revolutionary feature in the form of the Elbit Iron Vision helmet-mounted display system, which would allow crew members to “see” the world outside the tank via a series of external cameras without opening the vehicles’ hatches. The system, which provides unprecedented situational awareness, was tested in 2017 but it is not clear when it will be fielded—but it will be soon. Israel is the first to develop such technology, but Russia could eventually field similar hardware.

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“The discussion among experts now revolves mainly around the question of whether the commander lacks the necessary overview when sitting in the tank or whether TV cameras and electro-optical aiming devices can actually provide the same information as the optical aiming devices and observation equipment on the current generation of battle tanks,” Captain Stefan Bühler, graduate engineer at the University of Applied Sciences, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer at the NBC-KAMIR Competence Center for the Swiss Armed Forces and Commander of Tank Squadron 12/1,wrote. “A look into the sky provides the (technical) answer: the pilot of an F-35 can look through the aircraft with his head-up display – a computer generates a virtual 3D world from the video signals from the cameras mounted all around, which is then faded into his optics depending on the pilot’s direction of vision. With such technology, as offered by the Israeli company ELBIT Systems under the name ‘Iron Vision’ for use on armored vehicles, the commander of a T-14 could see even more than the commander of a battle tank with a manned turret.”

The T-14, by comparison to the Israeli machine, also features advanced protection systems—possibly more advanced in some regards than that of the Merkava—but also features an unmanned turret. The Russian vehicle also offers excellent mobility—and its faster and far more agile than the comparative huge Israeli machine, which weighs 65 tons and has 1500hp engine.

“The T-14 has the same power output as the Leopard 2 or the M1 Abrams, however, with a combat weight of 48 tons, it is 20% lighter, resulting in a specific output of 31.3 hp/T (22.9 kW/T). In comparison its western counterparts with 24 hp/T (17.6 kW/T), this new vehicle is extremely agile,” Bühler wrote. “The T-14’s tracks are narrower in the current version compared to the Leopard 2 or the M1 Abrams, however, due to the significantly lower combat weight, wide tracks are also not absolutely necessary: the specific ground pressure will be about the same compared to the western counterparts.”

Further, given its combination of active protection systems, reactive armor and passive laminated armor, the T-14 could possibly offer better protection for its crew than a comparable tank such as the Merkava, which is a more survivable machine than either the Leopard 2 or Abrams. Bühler argues that the Armata’s unmanned turret offers some survivability advantages over manned turret designs. “Based on all these considerations, it must be assumed that the T-14 Armata offers the crew a higher overall level of protection than its western counterparts, despite its significantly lower combat weight,” Bühler wrote.

In terms of sensors and situational awareness, the Israelis almost certainly retain a massive advantage over the Russian T-14. However, Bühler notes that sensors are a problem for all tanks. “Compared to older optical systems, video cameras and electro-optical scopes are neither more nor less vulnerable to enemy fire or splintering. Optics are, and will remain, the Achilles’ heel of a battle tank, including the T-14,” Bühler wrote.

The disadvantage of the Armata’s unmanned turret is situational awareness. The commander cannot pop his head out of the vehicle to maximize to see. That problem could be solved by technology such as Iron Vision, but it is not clear that the Russians have that technology. It is certain that Moscow does not have such technology installed on the current versions of the T-14, but it could eventually as Bühler notes. The Israelis’ massive situational awareness advantage given the capability of the Iron Vision system will give Tel Aviv’s seasoned tank crews a decisive advantage over the T-14 or any other Russian tank until Moscow develops an equivalent capability. In armored warfare, the crew that sees the enemy first almost always wins. This article first appeared in 2018.

Image: Reuters.

Stephen Silver

Biden Press Conference North Korea,

Biden was also asked whether he plans to run for reelection in 2024, and indicated that he does, although he also seemed confused as to why he was being asked such questions.

Speaking at the first news conference of his presidency on Thursday afternoon, President Joe Biden was asked about North Korea and its recent missile launches, including the ballistic missiles that were fired in the last 24 hours. That followed North Korea’s firing of cruise missiles a few days earlier, the week after two U.S. cabinet secretaries visited the region and discussed the North Korea issue with their counterparts in South Korea and Japan.

“Let me say that number one, the UN resolution 1718 was violated by those particular missiles that were tested,” the president said. “We’re consulting with our allies and partners, and there will be responses if they choose to escalate. We will respond accordingly.”

“But I’m also prepared for some form of diplomacy, but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearization. So that’s what we’re doing right now, consulting with our allies.”

When he was then asked if he agreed with former President Barack Obama’s warning to his successor, former President Donald Trump, that “North Korea was the top foreign policy issue that he was watching.”

Biden answered simply, “yes,” before moving on to the next question.

The press conference, in its first 30 minutes, concentrated much more on domestic policy issues than foreign policy issues, with the first several questions dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, economic concerns, the fate of the Senate filibuster, the influx of migrants who have recently shown up at the Southern border, and other issues.

Biden was also asked whether he plans to run for reelection in 2024, and indicated that he does, although he also seemed confused as to why he was being asked such questions.

In terms of other foreign policy issues, Biden was asked about Afghanistan, and whether the U.S. plans to meet its May 1 deadline of a U.S. withdrawal from that country. The president answered that he thinks it will be too logistically difficult to get all of the personnel out by that date, but remained committed to a withdrawal.

“We will leave, it’s a question of when we leave,” the president said of Afghanistan.

The press conference, Biden’s first as president, came 65 days into his first term. He began by reiterating that the main goal, at the outset of his presidency, was to solve the coronavirus crisis and the accompanying economic “dislocation.”

He went on to raise the administration’s goal for vaccinations to 200 million shots in 100 days after the original goal of 100 million was reached significantly ahead of schedule. The president also touted “new signs of hope” in the economy.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Caleb Larson

Security, Asia

Though still in its infancy, preliminary work has been done on the feasibility of a Japanese-made stealth fighter design.

Here's What You Need To Remember: Interoperability with Lockheed Martin’s F-35 would be an extremely desirable characteristic for the F-X platform. And, as Japan already operates the Lockheed Martin F-35, there is a strong case to be made for help from the American manufacturer. 

In a short statement posted to their website, the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced that the Japanese government had inked a contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to produce Japan’s first domestically-designed stealth fighter, tentatively called the F-X. “We have signed a contract with [Mitsubishi] Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.” the statement read. “In the future, we will steadily proceed with the development of the next fighter (FX) together with the company.”

As previously covered, Japan Self-Defense Forces are looking to have a domestically-designed and manufactured stealth fighter in service by the early- to mid-2030s that would serve alongside Japanese F-35 stealth fighters.

Though still in its infancy, preliminary work has been done on the feasibility of a Japanese-made stealth fighter design. A test platform, called the X-2 Shinshin, first flew in 2016 and was used to glean valuable information on stealth fighter flight characteristics rather than become a dedicated fighter.

Outside Help

Although Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) will be the prime contractor for the F-2 project, MHI will have to lean on foreign expertise for some of the fighter’s more technologically-challenging manufacturing aspects, namely stealth. Though not yet named, it is possible that Lockheed Martin, the American aerospace heavyweight and F-35 manufacturer, would provide the requisite manufacturing knowledge.

Though the F-X would be the first home-grown stealth fighter for the Japan Self-Defense Forces, though it would not mark the first time that the Forces partnered with an outside partner in aerospace development, nor the first time that Lockheed Martin provided manufacturing know-how to the island nation.

Japan partnered with Lockheed Martin on their Mitsubishi F-2 fighter, an F-16 Fighting Falcon derivative in the mid-1990s that some have called the backbone of Japan Air Self-Defense Forces. Though the two airframes are closely related, the Japanese F-2 is both longer and wider than the F-16. Once in service, the F-X would likely replace Mitsubishi’s F-2.

Interoperability with Lockheed Martin’s F-35 would be an extremely desirable characteristic for the F-X platform. And, as Japan already operates the Lockheed Martin F-35, there is a strong case to be made for help from the American manufacturer. 

Postscript

Regardless of which outside firm Japan decides to partner with, there is now a concrete plan in place for Japan to diversify its stealth capabilities. And, if partnering with Lockheed Martin, Japan may be poised to begin manufacturing one of the world’s most capable stealth fighters, given that company’s prodigious experience with stealth fighters. 

Caleb Larson is a defense writer for the National Interest. He holds a Master of Public Policy and covers U.S. and Russian security, European defense issues, and German politics and culture. This article first appeared last year.

Image: Flickr.

Michael Peck

Russian Military,

Moscow likes scary weapons, even though they might not be practically usable. Is the Poseidon the next best thing in deterrence or just sheer overkill?  

Here's What You Need to Remember: Russia suggests the Poseidon is a retaliatory weapon that would revenge a U.S. first strike even if American missile defenses were capable of stopping hundreds of Russian ICBMs. But even in the unlikely event that the U.S. could intercept 500 or more Russian ballistic missiles, a delivery system that could take days or weeks to reach its target seems hardly an efficient deterrent.

Russia has begun underwater tests of its Poseidon thermonuclear torpedo.

The Poseidon is an 80-foot-long nuclear-powered submersible robot that is essentially an underwater ICBM. It is designed to travel autonomously across thousands of miles, detonate outside an enemy coastal city, and destroy it by generating a tsunami.

"In the sea area protected from a potential enemy’s reconnaissance means, the underwater trials of the nuclear propulsion unit of the Poseidon drone are underway," an unnamed Russian defense official told the TASS news agency.

The source also said the “the reactor is installed in the hull of the operating drone but the tests are being held as part of experimental design work rather than full-fledged sea trials at this stage.”

TASS also reports the Poseidon, -- the name was chosen in a Web contest held by Russia’s Ministry of Defense – will be armed with a 2-megaton warhead. That’s more than enough to destroy a city. But that leaves the question of why Russia would choose to nuke an American city with an underwater drone – even one that allegedly travels 100 miles an hour – when an ICBM can do the job in 30 minutes.

Russia suggests the Poseidon is a retaliatory weapon that would revenge a U.S. first strike even if American missile defenses were capable of stopping hundreds of Russian ICBMs. But even in the unlikely event that the U.S. could intercept 500 or more Russian ballistic missiles, a delivery system that could take days or weeks to reach its target seems hardly an efficient deterrent.

More intriguing is the suggestion that Poseidon could be used against U.S. aircraft carriers. A very fast, nuclear-armed drone could prove difficult for American anti-submarine defenses to stop. In a March 2018 speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin described his nation as being able to “move at great depths -- I would say extreme depths -- intercontinentally, at a speed multiple times higher than the speed of submarines, cutting-edge torpedoes and all kinds of surface vessels, including some of the fastest. It is really fantastic. They are quiet, highly maneuverable and have hardly any vulnerabilities for the enemy to exploit. There is simply nothing in the world capable of withstanding them.”

Putin added that Poseidon’s “nuclear power unit is unique for its small size while offering an amazing power-weight ratio. It is a hundred times smaller than the units that power modern submarines, but is still more powerful and can switch into combat mode, that is to say, reach maximum capacity, 200 times faster.”

Let’s also leave aside the question of why, if Russia really is that advanced in reactor design, its regular nuclear submarines aren’t so blessed. The puzzle is why a giant robot submarine would be needed to detonate a nuclear warhead near a U.S. aircraft carrier (presumably Poseidon is too expensive to waste by arming it with a mere high-explosive warhead). If the goal is to sink a U.S. carrier, couldn’t Russia saturate a carrier’s defenses with a volley of conventionally-armed hypersonic missiles like the Mach 5-plus Khinzal? And if nukes are being used, Russia has no shortage of missiles, bombs and aircraft to target American ships.

Whether Poseidon adds much to Russia’s strategic nuclear forces is doubtful. No less is doubtful is Poseidon the Carrier-Killer.

Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook. This first appeared in 2018.

Image: Reuters.

Praising women’s fundamental contributions to peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts, the UN peacekeeping chief reiterated on Thursday that empowering women in the military remains a top priority, but to achieve this goal needs “all hands on deck”.

Stephen Silver

Missile Defense, Americas

The idea is to have two separate designs, and eventually, a winner-take-all selection will be made.

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have received contracts in order to “design the next-generation interceptor for the U.S. missile defense network,” Reuters reported this week, citing a document that the news outlet has seen.

“With an estimated maximum value of $1.6 billion through fiscal year 2022, this contract award is structured to carry two designs into the technology development and risk reduction phase of the acquisition program to reduce technical and schedule risk. This award will ensure NGI is an efficient and effective part of an integrated Missile Defense System (MDS) solution,” the Missile Defense Agency said in a press statement issued by its public affairs office. 

Northrop received a $3.9 billion contract, while Lockheed’s was for $3.7 billion, provided they are fully funded through their entire “performance period.” Boeing, per Bloomberg News, was left out of the contracts, which were described as the first major defense procurement of the Biden era.

The Washington Post said that Boeing was given a $6.6 billion contract in 2018 for a missile defense interceptor, although the contract was later canceled. 

“Boeing is disappointed the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) did not advance our team to the next phase of competition in the development of the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) competition,” Boeing said in a statement published by The Washington Post.

Bloomberg News characterized the awards as a combined $1.6 billion through 2022, at which point the program will be reassessed. The idea is to have two separate designs, and eventually, a winner-take-all selection will be made.

The system will be part of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, described by Reuters as “a network of radars, anti-ballistic missiles and other equipment designed to protect the United States from intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).”

“Today’s awards are an important step in modernizing our Missile Defense System,” Stacy Cummings, who is performing the duties of Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, said in the Pentagon’s announcement.

“NGI plays an important role in our homeland defense, and our acquisition strategy is ensuring the department maximizes innovation to keep pace with rapidly advancing threats.”

The announcement comes days after North Korea carried out a missile test, its first in about a year, and the first during the Biden administration. North Korea is seen as one of the adversaries who make the missile defense system necessary.

“NGI is the result of the first holistic technical assessment of homeland defenses the department has conducted since initial system operations began in 2004,” Vice Adm. Jon Hill, the director of Missile Defense Agency, said in the press statement. 

“By planning to carry two vendors through technology development, MDA will maximize the benefits of competition to deliver the most effective and reliable homeland defense missile to the warfighter as soon as possible. Once fielded, this new homeland defense interceptor will be capable of defeating expected threat advances into the 2030s and beyond.”   

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for the National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters

Caleb Larson

Virginia-class Submarine, Americas

The Virginia-class were the first American submarines to be designed using 3D computer modeling, a move that was supposed to save both money and time.

A number of submarine technology advancements since the end of the Cold War have arguably made the class into the deadliest sub hunters in existence.

The Virginia-class is the United States Navy’s newest nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, designed to hunt down and sink enemy submarines and other surface vessels. In the case of the Virginia-class, they are also fitted with vertical launching tubes that house Tomahawk missiles, affording the Virginia-class a land-attack capability in addition to being a primarily naval attack asset. The Virginia-class replaces the Los Angeles-class, the United States powerful but aging Cold War-era nuclear fast attack submarines.

One of the innovative technologies possessed by the Virginia-class is pump-jet propulsion, an improvement compared to traditional screw-type propellers. Though a variety of pump-jet designs exists, all of them essentially rely on a pump system to take in seawater and a nozzle to pump water out, creating forward movement. The advantages offered by pump-jet designs are numerous: they allow for higher top speeds than traditional propeller designs and are quieter—a crucial advantage in underwater games of cat-and-mouse.

The Virginia-class were the first American submarines to be designed using 3D computer modeling, a move that was supposed to save both money and time. Cost-saving measures were at a premium, as the class also supersedes the Seawolf-class an extremely well-armed and quiet though prohibitively costly fast-attack submarine class that was intended to replace the Los Angeles-class. Due to an extremely high $3 billion-plus per submarine, the Seawolves are represented by a paltry three hulls.

The Virginia-class comes in five blocks, or variants, that incorporate design improvements and cost-saving measures incrementally. The last block, block V, are radically different than the original block I Virginias and almost an entirely different class: they are about eighty feet longer in length than their predecessors, which allows them to house Virginia Payload Modules, increasing the amount of Tomahawk cruise missiles each submarine can carry—up to sixty-five missiles from approximately thirty-seven on previous Virginia blocks.

Most recently, the Virginia-class manufacturer, Electric Boat, announced they had been awarded $1.89 billion for an additional block V submarine, hull number SSN 811. The contract award allows Electric Boat to continue to produces Virginia-class at a rate of two hulls per year, a step seen by some as crucial for maintaining submarine numbers as the Los Angeles-class submarines are retired.

At this pace, the Virginia-class will likely be acquired until the mid-2040s, and are expected to remain in service for about thirty-three years. With that amount of longevity, the newest Virginia-class submarines would stay in service until the early 2070s.

Caleb Larson is a defense writer for the National Interest. He holds a Master of Public Policy and covers U.S. and Russian security, European defense issues, and German politics and culture

Image: Reuters

Kyle Mizokami

Aircraft Carriers,

Don't blink. Beijing could realistically have four aircraft carriers by 2022—a remarkable feat of military construction.

Here's What You Need to Remember: The Chinese Navy is growing. What are they going to use it for?

The People’s Liberation Army Navy—more commonly known outside of China as the Chinese Navy—is modernizing at a breakneck pace. Chinese shipbuilders have built more than one hundred warships in the past decade, a build rate outstripping the mighty U.S. Navy. Most importantly, China now has two aircraft carriers—Liaoning and a second ship under sea trials—and a third and possibly fourth ship under construction. With such a massive force under construction it’s worth asking: where does PLA naval aviation go from here?

For most of its modern history China has been the target of aircraft carriers, not an owner of one. The Imperial Japanese Navy’s carriers conducted strikes on the Chinese mainland in support of ground campaigns in the 1930s, strikes that went a long way toward honing the service’s legendary naval aviation record. U.S. naval power protected nationalist Chinese forces at the end of the Chinese Civil War, and U.S. Navy carriers conducted airstrikes on Chinese “volunteers” during the Korean War. In 1996 during the Third Taiwan Crisis, the United States deployed a carrier battle group near Taiwan as a sign of support against Chinese military actions. It could be fairly said that aircraft carriers made a significant impression on China.

Today, China has two aircraft carriers: the ex-Soviet carrier Liaoning, and a second unnamed ship, Type 002, currently undergoing sea trials. Liaoning is expected to function strictly as a training carrier, establishing training, techniques, and procedures for Chinese sailors in one of the most dangerous aspects of naval warfare: naval aviation. Despite this, Liaoning’s three transits of the Taiwan Strait and visit to Hong Kong show the PLAN considers it perfectly capable of showing the flag.

The second ship, Type 002 (previously referred to as Type 001A) resembles Liaoning but with a handful of improvements, including an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar the carrier’s island and a larger flight deck. Experts believe Type 002 will carry slightly more fighters than her older sibling, up to thirty J-15 jets in all. Type 002 will be the first combat-capable carrier, although the lack of a catapult means its aircraft must sacrifice range and striking power in order to take off from the flight deck.

A third ship of yet another class is under construction at the Jiangnan Shipyard at Shanghai, with credible reports of a fourth ship of the same class under construction at Dalian. This new class, designated Type 003, is the first Chinese carrier constructed using a modern, modular construction method. The modules, known as “superlifts” each weigh hundreds of tons, are assembled on land and then hoisted onto the ship in drydock. Large American and British warships, including carriers such as the USS Gerald R. Ford and HMS Queen Elizabeth are assembled using the superlift method.

Although there are few hard details on Type 003, we do know some things. The new carrier will forgo the ski ramp method for CATOBAR, or Catapult-Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery. The use of catapults will allow the carrier to launch heavier aircraft with great fuel and weapons loads, making the carrier more effective as a power projection platform. China has reportedly conducted “thousands” of test launches of a new electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS). Not only does an EMALs launch system enable the launch of heavier combat jets, it can also launch propeller-driven aircraft similar to the U.S. Navy’s E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft and the C-2 Greyhound cargo transport. The ability to tune EMALs power levels also makes it easier to launch smaller, lighter unmanned aerial vehicles from catapults.

We don’t currently know the size and displacement of the Type 003s, and likely won’t be able to even make an educated guess for another year. They will probably be incrementally larger than Type 002 with an incrementally larger air wing and overall combat capability, though one still falling short of American supercarriers. The new carriers are expected to be conventionally powered and fortunately, China’s EMALS system will not reportedly require nuclear power.

At the same time, Chinese designers are believed to be hard at work on a fourth class of carrier, Type 004. According to Popular Science, a leak by the shipbuilder claims the new class, “will displace between ninety thousand and one hundred thousand tons and have electromagnetically assisted launch system (EMALS) catapults for getting aircrafts off the deck. It'll likely carry a large air wing of J-15 fighters, J-31 stealth fighters, KJ-600 airborne early warning and control aircraft, anti-submarine warfare helicopters, and stealth attack drones.” Such specifications will make them the equal of U.S. carriers, at least on paper.

Meanwhile, the PLAN is looking forward a next-generation carrier aircraft. The PLAN has twenty-four J-15 multirole fighters, with at least two aircraft lost and two damaged during accidents attributed to the J-15 itself. That’s not enough aircraft to equip two carriers, land-based training units and carriers currently under construction. A future aircraft could be a carrier-based version of the Chengdu J-20 or the J-31/FC-31, China’s two new fifth-generation fighters. An interim solution could be the so-called J-17, an improved J-15 roughly comparable to the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and the EA-18G Growler.

The People’s Liberation Army Navy carrier fleet is a rapidly growing force shaping up to be a powerful, flexible tool of statecraft and war. Beijing could realistically have four aircraft carriers by 2022—a remarkable feat of military construction. All of this lead to a number of unsolved questions. To what end is Beijing building this force? How many carriers will the PLAN ultimately build? Is China growing a carrier force meant to protect its interests or expand them? We simply don’t know—but we will certainly find out.

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. This piece was originally featured in September 2018 and is being republished due to reader's interest.

Image: Wikimedia 

Peter Suciu

M4 Carbine, Eurasia

Ever since the first firearms passed through the Khyber Pass region between Afghanistan and Pakistan there has been a “cottage industry” that has mass-produced highly accurate and functional copies of firearms.

Jammu and Kashmir Police Chief Dilbagh Singh has found an M4 Carbine among a number of illegal weapons that were seized following a recent raid, according to recent reports. A cursory inspection of the firearm might have led some to believe the gun was stolen from the United States military at some point. However, upon closer look at some of the stamps on the weapon didn't seem quite right, and the serial number didn't match any missing American weapons.

That is because it wasn’t an actual American-made M4. It was believed to have been illegally manufactured in Pakistan or Afghanistan, The India Times reported. Such weapons aren’t actually that uncommon. They are just a twist in copies that have been produced in the region for centuries.

Ever since the first firearms passed through the Khyber Pass region between Afghanistan and Pakistan there has been a “cottage industry” that has mass-produced highly accurate and functional copies of firearms. Two centuries ago that included what can only be described as “counterfeit” versions of the English Land Pattern musket—also known as the Brown Bess.

Crafty artisans and self-taught gunsmiths were able to take whatever metal they could get hold of, and with rudimentary tools created functional firearms that were close in design to the actual weapons used by the military powers. All that these makers of knock-offs required was a sole version to serve as a template from which the gunsmiths reversed everything from the shape of the individual parts to the action. In most cases, the work was done on dirt floors with the most basic knowledge of firearms technology.

Over time the tools improved, as did the quality of the weapons. In fact, today it is possible to find nineteenth-century firearms with stamps that seem near-identical to those found on actual British military weapons.

What is most impressive is that this trade didn’t fade away. The primitive tools have given way to milling machines, CNC machines and other tools that aren't that different from what some independent gun makers in the United States use.

The town of Darra Adam Khel in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan has even gained international fame and notoriety for its bazaars that are filled with gunsmiths and weapons merchants. The side-alleys and narrow streets are lined with small gun shops many of which have operated since 1897. According to recent reports almost three-quarters of the people in the town are involved in the gun trade and upwards of seven hundred guns are produced daily.

During the Soviet’s War in Afghanistan, it wasn’t Martini Henry or Lee Enfield rifles that were copied but rather AK-47s, AKMs and SKS rifles. Now throughout Khyber Pass region near the Afghan and Pakistan frontier, it is the M4 Carbines used by the United States military and other powers that are routinely being copied.

What is especially worrisome now is that these weapons aren’t just being used locally by tribal chiefs or even the Taliban—neither of which should even be considered a good situation—but the fact that the weapons are increasingly being smuggled out of the region and sold on the black market. This has included those M4s that are now being seen with disturbing regularity in India.

However, the weapons could be as dangerous to the shooter as to any intended target. As the Silah Report noted, while many could be fooled into thinking the knock-offs were the real deal, the upper and lower receivers aren’t forged to the proper specifications and may not have the same tensile body strength as the originals. Caveat emptor—but that has always been the case with any gun from the Khyber Pass region.

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He regularly writes about military small arms, and is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.

Image: Reuters

Les récentes découvertes de gaz naturel dans les eaux territoriales de l'Egypte viennent confirmer l'importance des ressources de la Méditerranée orientale. Mais l'absence de frontières maritimes claires représente une nouvelle source de conflit, notamment entre Israël et le Liban. / Égypte, Israël, (...) / Égypte, Israël, Liban, Méditerranée, Proche-Orient, Conflit, Droit international, Eau, Économie, Énergie, Gaz naturel - 2015/10

Rachel Bucchino

Gun Control, Americas

Experts say that it is fairly common for a president and vice president to have different positions. But just how far apart are they on gun control? 

During the Democratic presidential primaries, then-candidate Kamala Harris campaigned largely on gun control reform—as she was heavily exposed to gun violence during her time as a prosecutor—and asserted that if Congress didn’t act swiftly on reform, as president, she would.

When she was running for president, Harris pledged to unilaterally enact extensive gun control bills if lawmakers on Capitol Hill didn’t act within her first 100 days in office. Some of her priorities covered on the campaign train were to ban the importation of all AR-15 style assault weapons, mandate “near-universal background checks” and take away a gun dealer’s license and hold criminal liabilities on them if they broke the law, according to CNN.

With just over a month until President Joe Biden marks his one hundred days in office, it’s unlikely that he will take a similar stance in passing gun control bills by executive orders.

Instead, Biden pushed the Senate this week to stand behind two House-passed bills on background checks and an assault weapons ban following the two recent shootings. He did not say that he would sign the bills into law by using his presidential powers.

This is largely different from Harris’s rhetoric during the 2020 presidential race, beliefs that Biden disagreed with when the two were competing for the nomination.

When Biden was a presidential candidate, he emphasized that there was no “constitutional authority” to nix assault weapons by executive orders. His remarks surfaced during a 2019 debate, where Harris was asked about his points regarding presidential powers and gun reform, in which Biden interrupted, “Some things you can, many things you can’t.” 

Harris then followed up by saying, “I would just say, ‘Hey Joe, instead of saying, ‘No, we can't,’ let's say, ‘Yes we can.’” 

But it’s important to note that it’s unlikely that Harris and Biden would publicly disagree with one another, as the duo has carved a strong relationship ever since the president declared her as his running mate.

It’s unclear, however, how Harris will navigate conversations relating to gun control, as the issue served as the centerpiece on her own presidential campaign, while it hasn’t been addressed under the Biden administration.

“It is time for Congress to act and stop with the false choices. This is not about getting rid of the Second Amendment. It's simply about saying we need reasonable gun safety laws,” Harris told CBS News, adding that Biden hasn’t crossed off exercising his executive authority to pass bills relating to gun reform. 

But experts say that it is fairly common for a president and vice president to have different positions.

“It doesn't matter what positions a vice president held prior to becoming VP; she or he is subordinate to the president. A VP can pick a fight with the president, but this is a sure way to end up on a months long tour of diplomatic outposts no one has ever heard of,” Jonathan Krasno, a political science professor at Binghamton University, said.

Marjorie Hershey, a professor emerita of political science at Indiana University-Bloomington, noted that “the traditional practice of nominating a vice-presidential candidate who would ‘balance the ticket’ made it very likely that disagreements would exist.”

Experts referred to previous president-vice president relationships in which the two disagreed on ideology, including former President Ronald Reagan and then-vice president George H. W. Bush.  

“George H. W. Bush pilloried then Gov. Ronald Reagan's economic policy as ‘voodoo economics’ and took a different stance on abortion than did Gov. Reagan. As Vice President, he fully supported President Reagan's policies and actions in these matters,” Joel Goldstein, a vice presidential expert and professor of law emeritus at Saint Louis University School of Law, said.

Goldstein also said, “A vice president's advising role always includes giving the president [advice] that the president may not agree with and may not accept.” He went on to add that “one of the reasons many were critical of Vice President [Mike] Pence was the perception that he was too obsequious and unwilling to give such advice, perhaps because he did not believe President [Donald] Trump welcomed such advice.”

“Breaking with the boss isn't a great move, especially when the boss is pretty popular and has the ability to freeze you out of other important initiatives,” Krasno said. “Or when you hope to succeed him as president. No one has more vested interest in Biden's success than does Kamala Harris.” 

Ultimately, Harris can offer Biden input on his agenda, as he vowed that his political partner will be the “last voice in the room” before big decisions, but the final move will be made by the president. 

Biden hopes that the Senate will move on gun control reform, a matter that will likely be on the chamber’s chopping block since Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Tuesday that he does not support the two House bills that were passed last week. With razor-thin margins in a 50–50 divided Senate, Democrats do not have enough votes to make them become law. 

Rachel Bucchino is a reporter at the National Interest. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and The Hill. 

Image: Reuters