"The US Air Force will deploy a small number of F-35A Lightning II aircraft this weekend on a long-planned training deployment to Europe," the release stated.
The F-35 Lightning II is a fifth generation fighter jet, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information and network-enabled operations.
Three variants of the F-35 jet are being introduced into the Air Force (F-35 A), Navy (F-35C), Marines (F-35B).
The creation of the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) was announced by US President Barack Obama in 2014 as an alleged response to the "Russian threat." The ERI was established in the 2015 budget as a one-year, $1 billion emergency response.
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