An F-16C assigned to the 36th Fighter Squadron at Osan AB, South Korea, crashed on Wednesday near Kunsan Air Base in that country during a routine training mission, announced Kunsan officials. The pilot safely ejected before the F-16 crashed into a rice field, they said. No injuries were reported; response teams were on scene. “We are grateful the pilot is safe and that no one was injured,” said Col. Patrick McKenzie, commander of Osan’s 51st Fighter Wing, parent unit of the 36th FS. He added, “Our main priority now is conducting an investigation to determine what happened.” The Air Force will provide additional details as they become available, said the Kunsan officials.
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…