A California Air National Guard F-16 crashed Friday morning during a routine training flight. The pilot from the 144th Fighter Wing at Fresno safely ejected. The day before on the other side of the country, a T-38 from the training wing at Columbus AFB, Miss., crashed about 40 miles south of Memphis, Tenn. The student and instructor pilots both ejected safely.
Over the past several years, the Pentagon has dedicated nearly $30 billion in funding to the European Deterrence Initiative, helping to bolster the U.S. military’s posture and flexibility in the region to respond to Russian aggression. In that time, the initiative has become “absolutely vital” to U.S. forces in Europe,…