According to news reports, the pilot of the F-16 that crashed Monday night (or see below) about 10:25 p.m. was killed. The aircraft from the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill AFB, Utah, was destroyed on impact at the Utah Test and Training Range. An early report by ABC 4 in Utah said the wife of Capt. George Bryan Houghton, 28, of Candler, N.C., acknowledged she had been informed of his death on Tuesday morning. Later, the Deseret News reported that Air Force officials at Hill confirmed the pilot’s death in a news conference Tuesday afternoon. Air Force rescue forces found the crash site Monday night, and the Air Force initially reported it was still searching for the pilot. ABC 4 reports that the crash site is about 35 miles south of Wendover near the Utah-Nevada state line. The Air Force has not determined the cause of the crash, but, per the Deseret News, Hill officials did say the pilot made no distress call and they were uncertain if he tried to eject. USAF will form a board to investigate the accident.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China military briefing Oct. 27, part of a bi-weekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonics weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…