The Pentagon is moving fast to cement its newfound friendship with India. USAF has staged two major air combat exercises—”Cope Indias”—in the past 18 months. Now comes word that Washington is weighing a possible sale of F-16 fighters equiped with he new Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar. In an interview with Reuters news service, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, head of the Pentagon’s security assistance office, said the US is considering the radar sale as part of a $5 billion deal for more than 120 fighters. Reuters quoted Kohler as saying, “Their pilots [would] come to our schools. We’ll train with them. We will work very closely with their maintenance technicians.” The question, as always, is how Pakistan will react.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
