Army Gen. Carter Ham, US Africa Command boss, said he’s encouraged by the growing number of nations joining the coalition committed to stopping Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi’s forces from attacking innocent Libyan civilians. Ham told reporters Monday that Belgian and Canadian forces joined the fight on Monday and he expected additional countries to become involved in the coming days. US and British warships launched 124 Tomahawk missiles against Libya’s integrated air and missile defense systems over the weekend, effectively kick-starting the no-fly zone over the coastal city of Benghazi. On Sunday, US aircraft flew roughly 30 of the 60 air sorties over the region, but by Monday, coalition partners’ aircraft flew “the overwhelming percentage” of sorties, said Ham. “We are hopeful some other nations will continue to join us. Some have made some firm offers and we expect to see their forces operating in the next day or two,” he said. France, Denmark, and Qatar are among the coalition nations participating in Operation Odyssey Dawn. (Ham transcript)
Due to the prolonged delay in deliveries of the Tech Refresh 3 version of the F-35 fighter, Denmark is pulling six of its TR-2-configured F-35 jets stationed in the U.S. back to home base in order to consolidate aircraft and get better training for its pilots and maintainers, the Danish…