U.S. stealth fighters to train in Europe
WASHINGTON – Air Force officials say they will soon be deploying stealthy, high-tech F-22 fighter jets to Europe to train with other nations’ militaries and reassure allies worried about Russian aggression.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh says allies in Europe have advanced aircraft and they want to be able to train side-by-side with the U.S. fighters to insure the nations’ militaries can operate well together.
Officials would not say where the fighter jets are going or when they will deploy.
VA cuts backlog of disability claims
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs said Monday it now has fewer than 100,000 disability claims older than four months, a “historic milestone” that is one-sixth the size of a long-term backlog that reached a record 611,000 claims in 2013.
Allison Hickey, the VA’s undersecretary for benefits, said the current backlog of 98,535 claims older than 125 days is the lowest since the agency started measuring the claims backlog in 2007.
The decrease has not come at the expense of quality, Hickey said.
Associated Press
