Norway will expand its role in the fight against ISIS, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Monday. The country will send special operations troops to Jordan to train Syrian Arab Sunni fighters, and will deploy a medical team to northern Iraq. “The added forces are a welcome contribution from a stalwart ally,” Carter said, adding that he invited Norwegian Minister of Defense Ine Eriksen Soreide to a meeting Wednesday in Stuttgart, Germany, with other defense ministers from countries involved in the fight against ISIS. Carter said the campaign is “gathering momentum, but there is more work to do.” (Carter statement.)
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…