With fighter jets on display at air show, the U.S. makes a stealth pitch to India
CBSN
When two Lockheed Martin F-35s flown by the United States Air Force roared through Indian skies for the first time this week at an international air show in southern India, spectators were awestruck by the fighter jet's design and aerobatics.
The fifth-generation fighter jet has stealth, supersonic, and multi-role capabilities - making it the most lethal in the world. And the presence of the aircraft — an F-35A Joint Strike Fighter from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and an F35-A Lightning II from the 354th Fighter Wing at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, along with F-16s, Super Hornets and B-1B bombers — at the weeklong aviation exhibition in Bengaluru fueled speculation whether the American show of strength was a sign of a growing strategic relationship between the two countries or an attempt by Washington to woo New Delhi away from its biggest military supplier and decades-old friend, Russia.
"Frankly, we have seen such high-level American participation earlier too … but geopolitically, things are a little different. China is a little more aggressive, so this is significant," Manmohan Bahadur, a retired air vice marshal of the Indian Air Force, told CBS News.
Paris — Jean-Marie Le Pen, the historic leader of France's far-right political movement, died Tuesday at the age of 96, the French news agency AFP said, citing his family. Le Pen, who had been in a care facility for several weeks, died Tuesday "surrounded by his loved ones," the family said in a statement.
Seoul — North Korea on Monday test fired a ballistic missile as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Korea, where he warned that Pyongyang was working ever closer with Russia on advanced space technology. Blinken also said that while he believed a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would end the war in Gaza, it may not happen until after President Biden's term, under returning President-elect Donald Trump.