AIR FORCE/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The U.S. Air Force is considering forming international squadrons of low-cost fighter planes to strike terrorist targets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, allowing deployment of higher-tech jets to areas requiring their advanced capabilities.
A new unit employing relatively inexpensive off-the-shelf aircraft could free up cutting-edge U.S. and allied jet fighters for deterrence missions in Europe and Asia, and could help relieve a critical pilot shortage the U.S. Air Force faces, military and congressional officials say… Congressional defense experts are urging the Air Force to rethink its strategy. They want it to move more of its advanced aircraft to Asia and Europe and design a plane that is cheaper to build and operate in the Middle East and other terror hot spots.
The U.S.’s annual defense-policy bill, which was signed into law in December, called on the Air Force to spend as much as $1.2 billion over five years to purchase as many as 300 aircraft, at the insistence of Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.)…
Once the U.S. chooses a plane, and if it acquires a fleet, it plans to push allies to purchase the same airplane. Gen. Goldfein has appointed an Air Force team to study the possibility of creating international squadrons that could be deployed to support the fight against Islamic State or other terror groups.”
-Julian E. Barnes and Gordon Lubold, “U.S. Air Force Weighs International Squadrons to Strike Terror Targets,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 19, 2018 05:30am