Roger That: Raids in Europe foil multiple planned terrorist attacks

In the U.K., at least seven terror plots were stopped. In Germany, at least one was thwarted. Belgian authorities foiled numerous plots, and French authorities tell NBC that they have foiled dozens more, including one Thursday, according to NBC News.

But these efforts by European officials since the rise of ISIS two years ago have far from curbed the terror group's threat on the continent. One senior European counter-terrorism official confirmed to NBC News Thursday that authorities are bracing for more attacks by ISIS sleeper cells hidden throughout Europe — including possibly Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

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The Air Force has flown more than half of the 87,000 coalition sorties over Iraq and Syria since the air campaign against the Islamic State militant group began, striking key locations and assets about 25 times a day, Lt. Gen. John Raymond told reporters Thursday, according to Military Times.

That number may increase in the weeks ahead as Iraqi forces advance to reclaim Mosul, the most populous city in the territory held by ISIS.

“We have conducted 67 percent of the nearly 11,000 airstrikes,” said Raymond, deputy chief of staff for Air Force operations. “From F-15s to F-22s to A-10s to B-1s to [remotely piloted aircraft], we use all of the aircraft to meet the ... demands of the mission at hand.”

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The Pentagon has put a civilian hiring freeze in place for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Defense Agencies and Field Activities, Defense News has learned.

The freeze, which went into effect March 20, was ordered by Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work in a Feb. 23 memo. It impacts all vacant full-time and part-time, temporary and permanent civilian positions with no tentative offer presented as of March 19.

The freeze is related to a congressional order to reduce the number of headquarters staff at the Pentagon. As part of the “delayering” process, all personnel need to be reflected in the Fourth Estate Manpower Tracking System (FMTS), an internal DoD accounting system. The goal is to get an accurate picture of the current manpower in order to know what spots need to be filled and what can be left alone.

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Is the Air Force’s futuristic F-35 Joint Strike Fighter a trillion-dollar boondoggle? A lot of think tank analysts and military journalists seem to think so.

Just this week, an Australian think tank called it a “jackass of all trades” and compared the Lockheed Martin 5th-generation fighter to a Ponzi scheme, according to a newspaper in that country. There is also plenty of bad press in the United States. The Daily Beast website published a story last week that described the dire state of the aircraft's development with an expletive.

The Pentagon now hopes to change years of negative impressions by bringing the aircraft — 15 years in development — face to face with the public in 2016.

Airshow crowds in New York City, Las Vegas, Chicago and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will finally get a close look at the F-35. The Air Force Heritage Flight Foundation, a nonprofit group that performs demonstrations and supports the service, has been authorized to show off the fighter throughout the year. Its next scheduled demo is at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona in April.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 11:32 AM with the headline "Roger That: Raids in Europe foil multiple planned terrorist attacks."