The Air Force Thunderbirds flight demonstration team performed for the first time in Finland, headlining the Turku Air Show together with the Finnish air force Midnight Hawks demo group. “Finland is a great friend to the US, and I hope this is just the first of many Thunderbirds performances here,” said Lt. Col. Case Cunningham, Thunderbirds commander, during the air show in mid June. To mark their visit, the Thunderbirds added the Finnish flag to the flag panel behind the cockpits of their F-16s. Over the team’s 58-year history, its members have added a tiny flag for every country they have performed in. The panel now has 63 national flags. (Turku report by SSgt. Jake Richmond)
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…