Two more F-16 fighters—one from Hill AFB, Utah, and one from Luke AFB, Ariz.—last week suffered problems that prompted emergency landings. A Vermont Air National Guard F-16 also recently developed a problem that required the pilot to jettison his external fuel tanks before attempting a landing. At Hill, a pilot with the 388th Fighter Wing had to jettison external fuel tanks and munitions shortly after takeoff. A bomb dropped on a shed near where ordnance is stored and exploded, demolishing the shed and a nearby transformer, reports The Salt Lake Tribune. The pilot landed safely. The Luke pilots in a two-seat F-16D had to make a hard landing short of the runway at Wickenburg Municipal Airport after losing engine power, according to a Luke release. They walked away safely. (This ABC15 report has slides showing the fighter in the dirt.)
Just days after a Defense Intelligence Agency report predicted new ballistic missile testing by North Korea, the Pyongyang regime fired a a submarine-launched ballistic missile which landed in the Sea of Japan. While U.S. Indo-Pacific Command downplayed the test as representing no new threat to the U.S. or regional allies,…