syrian defense force our allies on the ground that we ve trained and equipped to go after isis. essentially, i don t think we re going to finish off isis and syria as long as assad is in power. that s why it s critical that assad goes hopefully through a political and diplomatic resolution, but that would require again pushing russia out of the way and giving us more freedom of action to change the calculus on the battlefield. hans, what do we know about our military assets and part of the world right now? any movement? you ve got the u.s. george w. bush in the east, so that s where the f-18s flew from that knocked down the 22. you have destroyers there as well. you don t have to worry about a no-fly zone if you re launching cruise missiles. i would say on all of this, the rhetoric we hear from the actual war fighters from the people at operation resolution support here in the pentagon and that is that the u.s. does not seek a conflict with the assad regime.
the u.s. monitors foreign aircraft as they approach and tries to track that, particularly military aircraft. in the most recent case which occurred yesterday, russian bear bombers were intercepted and some canadians cf 18s. this was about 700 miles southwest of anchorage alaska. one official saying four times in four days this couldn t be anything but strategic messaging. there are other factors in play. one is russia is trying to keep their pilots up to snuff, training them, making sure they can fly these long range missions. four times in four days is particularly note worthy in this case. fred, you re there in moscow. what are the russian what s the russian government saying about these bear bombers moving this close, buzzing in effect the alaskan coastline? there s really two sides. the kremlin for its part is not saying anything about all of this. they keep referring us to the russian defense ministry.
there s plenty of critics. but the pilots are the biggest supporters. you re a fan of this jet? a big fan. i ve been lucky never to fly some f-18s, during different tours, super hornets, this jet is by far just in a different league. as soon as you put the throttle forward, you get a kick in the pants. are you telling me it s fast? it s fast and good and smooth and very responsive. it s just an awesome airplane to fly. the view, it s in your helmet. you look down, you see the bottom of the airplane. where you point your head that s right. as you look, it brings in the camera from where you re looking. this area plain, everything was developed after the turn of the century if not just coming off the line today.
taken heavy rhetorical fire from congress, the military, and even president trump great tonight, senior correspondent rick leventhal shows us what is so special about this plan advisor so controversial. the f-35 is the most expensive in history, a price tag of roughly $100 million project. on top of the nearly $1 trillion already spent on research and development. the air force, navy, and marine corps plan to buy nearly 2500 of them. the marines favor the f-35 b. it stops in midair and lands vertically. i have been lucky enough to fly some f-18s, ordinance, hornets, during my career, this is in a different league. speak at a single seat, single agent still fighters can be armed with bombs, missiles, and 25 monitor cannons. and develop and, design, and
coordination. f-16s or f-18s over the skies, that s when you need the mechanism. don t know the options presented. don t by h.r. mcmaster and secretary tillerson, three options presented. i m trying to imagine from my old job, one is 59 t-lams off the porter and ross and second is more broad-based against air bases including u.s. military aircraft and third more aggressive. not waste the crisis is term you hear often in the pentagon, go after and try to destroy the entirety of the assad air force. again, options two and three in that scenario would require the