Jakarta - Mount Anak Krakatau in the waters of the Sunda Strait, South Lampung Regency, Lampung Province experienced an eruption on Sunday (10/10) at 12:36 WIB with the height of the ash column observed to be around 1,000 meters above the peak or around 1,157 meters above sea level.
"There has been an eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau, Lampung, on September 10 2023 at 12:36 WIB," said an official statement from the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation (PVMBG) in Jakarta, Sunday.
PVMBG explained that the ash column was observed to be gray to black in color with thick intensity leaning towards the northeast and the eruption was recorded on a seismogram with a maximum amplitude of 70 millimeters and a duration of around three minutes 52 seconds.
Currently, Mount Anak Krakatau is at level III or alert status so that the public, visitors, tourists and climbers are advised not to approach or carry out activities within a five kilometer radius of the active crater.
This volcano is covered in fog so that crater smoke cannot be observed, while the surrounding weather is cloudy with weak winds to the northwest and an air temperature of around 27 degrees Celsius and humidity of 39 to 53 percent.
"There was one Tremor Meneru earthquake," said PVMBG.
For information, Mount Anak Krakatau during June 2023 has erupted six times with varying heights of the ash pool.
Then on Thursday (20/7) at 08.52 WIB, this mountain erupted again and ejected volcanic ash as high as 2,000 meters which was recorded on the seismogram with a maximum amplitude of 61 millimeters and a duration of approximately 3 minutes and two seconds.
Korea : “Something big is coming” US aircraft carrier-class landing ship heads to the West Sea for the first time in 73 years
The amphibious assault ship 'America' was training with the Korean and Japanese navies in the Coral Sea near Australia at the end of July. Unlike her aircraft carriers, she
This is the 'Encyclopedia of New Weapons on the Korean Peninsula' that seeks to find a path to peace while accurately understanding the current state of the military standoff on the Korean Peninsula. This is Kim Jin-guk, hosting the 'Encyclopedia of New Weapons on the Korean Peninsula' delivered from Washington DC, USA.
There are many suspicious aspects of the North Korea-Russia arms trade. We take a look with Lee Il-woo, Secretary General of Korea's ' Independent Defense Network ' .
73rd anniversary of ‘ Incheon Landing Operation ’, the miracle that saved Korea
It is said that an event commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the Incheon Landing Operation will be held on September 15th off the coast of Incheon, Korea . This event, which is held every year, is scheduled to be held a little special this year ?
This year marks the 73rd anniversary of the Incheon Landing Operation, a large-scale landing operation called Operation Chromite in the United States, that saved the Republic of Korea from a desperate crisis on September 15 , 1950 .
At that time, 75,000 allied troops from the Korean military, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands, led by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, entered the waters off Incheon aboard 261 ships , withstood virtually impossible conditions of 1 in 5,000 and achieved a valuable victory. I paid it . And with this Incheon landing operation, the North Korean army lost its ability to continue the war as its supply route was completely cut off , and the UN forces began to advance north, defeating the North Korean army without hesitation .
If the UN forces had not achieved this miracle at the time, most Koreans today would have lived in pain under Kim Jong-un's dictatorial regime , and about 300,000 Koreans who were scheduled to be relocated overseas under the New Korea Plan that was being discussed at the time would also have escaped to the South Pacific. They may have been trapped in a small, barren land called the Samoa Islands and lived in poverty .
For this reason, most Koreans call the Incheon Landing Operation a miracle that saved the Republic of Korea and have held an event to commemorate the victory every year. Through the event, we expressed our gratitude to the UN and ROK soldiers who sacrificed their blood and sweat to save the Republic of Korea from crisis, and honored their dedication .
A very small group of forces in South Korea have disparaged the Incheon Landing Operation and General Douglas MacArthur, who commanded it, and have opposed the commemorative event, representing North Korea's position . However, the previous government, which was strongly influenced by those forces , blocked the event itself throughout its administration. It has either not been held or has been greatly reduced , and not a single event has been held to re-enact part of the operation using warships, aircraft , or troops .
However, as South Korea's Yoon Seok-yeol government recently emphasized the strengthening of the liberal democratic system and the ROK-US alliance, this year's budget for the event was significantly increased, and the largest commemorative event and landing operation reenactment of all time was confirmed . A task force was created at the Korean Navy's naval headquarters , and a victory commemoration event, a street parade , and a reenactment event mobilizing the largest number of troops and fleets ever were planned .
At this event, the Korean military plans to honor the UN forces at the time with the largest commemorative event in history by deploying 29 warships , 23 aircraft , 15 amphibious assault vehicles , and 3,000 troops . In response, some of the participating countries sent warships and missions. We are planning to send .
The Yoon Seok-yeol government plans to gradually increase the scale of this event and turn it into a large-scale international event similar to the commemoration ceremony for the Normandy Landing Operation in France. At the 2025 event, the heads of state and veterans of the eight countries that participated in the war will be invited to express their gratitude, and strong figures from the liberal democracy camp will be invited . We plan to show the development of Korea as a nation . Since this year's event marks the first step, the government, counties, and local governments have prepared with great care .
‘ America ’, which is more like an aircraft carrier than an aircraft carrier, visits Incheon for the first time in history
It is said that special guests will come to the special event held with great significance by the Korean government. It is said that the United States will send a landing ship for the first time to the Incheon Landing Operation commemoration event . Should we pay attention to this ?
In peacetime, the Korean Navy's large landing ships are deployed in the South Sea or near Jeju. This is because the 1st Marine Division, an amphibious mobile unit that uses amphibious ships, is located in Pohang , and forward deployment of amphibious ships, which are extremely aggressive weapons, could send a provocative message to North Korea and China .
However, this time, a large number of new landing ships Cheonwangbong and Nojeokbong, Korean destroyers and frigates, including Dokdo, a large transport ship that looks like an aircraft carrier, are scheduled to participate , as well as Allied warships that formed the UN landing force during the Incheon landing operation .
Until now, only the Korean military participated in the Incheon Landing Operation victory ceremony, but this time, the United States and Canada, which were participating countries during the Incheon Landing Operation, decided to send warships . From the United States, the large amphibious assault ship 'America' is scheduled to arrive , and from Canada, the frigate 'Vancouver', which is carrying out freedom of navigation missions to crack down on North Korean illegal transshipment and fight against China in the waters around the Korean Peninsula .
Among these, 'America' is a strategic asset that North Korea and China are very wary of. When the Korean media first reported that the America Ship was coming to this event, the Korean Navy immediately took a stance and took pains to not overinterpret it, saying that the America Ship was not coming to reenact the joint landing operation . The reason the South Korean Navy made such a fuss is because it knows how North Korea and China will react to a ship called America coming deep into the West Sea , even off the coast of Incheon .
America, whose name is American, is the fourth ship in the U.S. Navy to use the same name.
It was commissioned into the U.S. Navy in 2014 , and after commissioning , it mainly performed test and evaluation missions operating new aircraft such as the F-35B and MV-22 in the U.S. mainland. In 2020 , it replaced the Wasp-class Bonham Richard, an older amphibious assault ship, in the Western Pacific. I was assigned to the 7th Fleet in charge .
The America is an amphibious ship, or in North Korean terms, a ship that carries the troops and equipment of the Naval Land Forces, approaches the coast, and then lands them on the coast . Usually, when we think of a landing ship , we think of a ship that rushes directly to the sandy beach of the coast or disembarks a small landing craft and then loads soldiers onto it and sends them to the shore . America is a ship built with a completely different concept from existing landing ships .
America has no welldecks, or flooded deck areas and locks for storing smaller ships . Therefore, it cannot carry even one landing ship , and is made to carry only aircraft . She is equipped with a massive flight deck, hangars , and aircraft support facilities, making her an amphibious landing ship in name only, but in reality she is more of an aircraft carrier type ship .
This ship is enormous, with a length of 257 m, a width of 32 m, and a full load displacement of 45,693 tons , which is larger than the French Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle, and larger than the light aircraft carriers owned by Italy and Spain .
America can carry up to 1,600 landing troops and 40 different types of aircraft . In particular , it can carry a vertical takeoff and landing stealth fighter called the F-35B , making it a strategic asset that North Korea and China are very wary of .
The USS, carrying 22 F-35Bs , devastated Pyongyang in 10 minutes.
Carrying a stealth fighter means literally being the same as an aircraft carrier. So, to what extent can the Americas be capable of being used as an aircraft carrier ?
The United States has 11 aircraft carriers , but not all of them can be put into operation at all times . Of the 11 ships, 3 to 4 are always under repair , and repairs on an aircraft carrier take from 6 months at the shortest to over 4 years at the longest . The remaining aircraft carriers must be deployed half-and-half to the Pacific and Atlantic , and excluding one ship permanently deployed to Japan and one ship deployed on a permanent basis to Europe or the Middle East , there is always a shortage of aircraft carriers that can be mobilized additionally in case of emergency. I do .
It costs a huge amount of money to move a super-large aircraft carrier weighing over 100,000 tons . For this reason, the United States has been thinking about using smaller amphibious assault ships as replacements for aircraft carriers , and began to materialize the concept with the completion of the F-35B fighter jet .
In 2020 , a confirmed case of coronavirus occurred on the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, which was deployed in the Western Pacific, and an unprecedented situation occurred in which the aircraft carrier was quarantined in Guam. At the time, the Ronald Reagan, which was a fixed-deployment aircraft carrier for the 7th Fleet, was under repair, so there was no aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific . A situation has occurred . To solve this problem, the United States took the experimental step of loading the America Ship with F-35Bs and making it an aircraft carrier . Since the nickname of the F-35B fighter is 'Lightning II ' , the aircraft carrier carrying this fighter was named 'Lightning Carrier' . During this Lightning Carrier mission, America can carry up to 22 F-35B fighter jets . Compared to the light aircraft carriers of European countries, it is almost twice the size .
Unlike the land-based F-35A , the F-35B has a separate engine, so it can take off and land at a very short distance , and can also take off and land vertically . Inside, it can be equipped with two medium-range air-to-air missiles and two precision-guided bombs . With weapons installed inside , it is possible to infiltrate the middle of enemy territory in a stealth state .
Currently , it is very difficult for China and North Korea's air defense networks to effectively detect and respond to the completely stealth F-35B . In particular, at the level of North Korea's air defense network, it is impossible to respond to the F-35B even if it flies over the Workers' Party Headquarters in Pyongyang or Residence No. 15 . It cannot be done . Since the distance from the coast of Incheon to Pyongyang is less than 200km , an F-35B launched from the USS America off the coast of Incheon can reach Pyongyang in 10 minutes even if it flies leisurely . It can turn Pyongyang's central district into a wasteland without North Korea even noticing .
When the America Ship emerges from the coast of Incheon just a little bit into the open sea, Beijing will be within the combat radius of the F-35B fighter jet . China will not be helpless like North Korea because it has prepared various preparations for stealth aircraft such as the F-35B for a long time , but even with China's current power , it is quite difficult to defend against a simultaneous attack by about 20 stealth fighters .
Above all, America does not move alone. A huge amount of money, $ 3.4 billion, was spent to build this ship , and the price of one F-35B fighter jet mounted on the ship is well over $ 100 million , just for the fighter itself . Naturally, an Aegis ship is attached to escort this ship , and the US Navy is adopting the concept of an expeditionary strike group by attaching an Aegis ship to an amphibious landing ship . In April of this year , a powerful ballistic missile interceptor destroyer called 'John Finn' entered Pyeongtaek, South Korea , making China nervous. Since America is coming with several such ships, the entry of such strategic assets deep into the West Sea is enough to put North Korea and China at risk. It can put enormous strategic pressure on .
The lesson from Kim Il-sung’s time, “ Let’s not be fooled by the Soviet Union, ” may be repeated.
Considering opposition from North Korea and China, the United States has refrained from deploying such strategic assets in the West Sea near Pyongyang and Beijing. What do you think is the background to this measure ?
This event to commemorate the victory of the Incheon Landing Operation is an event that is being resumed for the first time in six years and is an event that symbolically shows the restoration and strengthening of the ROK-US alliance, so the US also needs to respond to Korea's message of active alliance strengthening .
In fact, the America ship has been carrying out missions so hectic over the past three months that it needs rest. She has been in charge of patrolling the South China Sea , participated in the large-scale international joint exercise Talisman Saber held in Australia , and recently conducted multinational joint exercises in the Philippines in response to China's show of force in the Spratly Islands of the Philippines . It was impossible to come to Korea right away in this condition, so on the morning of September 2nd , she entered her home port of Sasebo, Japan, and rested. The fighter planes on board her also moved to Iwakuni Marine Aircraft Base, Japan, and are scheduled to rest for about a week .
The American ship that enters the West Sea after rest and maintenance is ready to perform combat missions immediately, and the United States is likely to appeal this to North Korea and China . This is because the purpose of America's deployment in the West Sea is to send a stern warning message to China and North Korea, which have recently increased the level of military provocations in Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula .
If China continues to carry out military provocations in Taiwan and the South China Sea, and North Korea continues to talk about nuclear attack exercises and launch missiles as it does now , the United States will also increasingly send these strategic assets to the West Sea , and the United States is fully capable of doing so. It appears that this deployment in the West Sea of America was decided as a demonstration of force .
Lee Il-Woo, Secretary General of Korea's Independent Defense Network. This is Kim Jin-guk of RFA in Washington, USA .
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