A retired F-15C has begun its cross-country land journey from JB Langley-Eustis, Va., to the Chico Air Museum in northern California. The partially disassembled aircraft left Langley on two trucks Monday, reported the Chico Enterprise-Record. The trucks are expected to reach the aircraft’s new home by early August, according to the paper. The F-15 will go on display there. The museum purchased the fighter for $5,000 and agreed to move it at its own expense. Langley-Eustis’ last operational F-15s departed this past September as part of the Air Force’s drawdown of roughly 250 legacy fighters. F-22s now comprise the base’s fighter force.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…