An F-35 Marine Corps fighter conducted a flyover of the White House on Wednesday to mark Polish President Andrzej Duda~q~s visit and Poland~q~s agreement to purchase the advanced aircraft from the United States.

12日，美国总统特朗普在白宫会晤到访的波兰总统杜达，并宣布波兰从美国购买了32架最新型的F-35隐形战机。

特朗普特意安排了美国海军陆战队的F-35B在白宫上空做飞行表演，引起了不明就里的部分华盛顿民众的恐慌。

Photos: Reuters

Presidents Trump and Duda, accompanied by their wives, went to the White House South Lawn to watch the F-35 perform the flyover and then hover above, a capability unique to the Marine version of the aircraft. They waved as the plane flew overhead.

特朗普及夫人梅拉尼娅、杜达及夫人阿加塔在白宫南草坪观看了美军F-35B战机的飞行表演。这架海军陆战队F-35B战机以300米左右的高度从白宫上空飞过，在华盛顿纪念碑附近做“Z”字飞行，还一度调整为垂直起降模式进行盘旋。

The F-35s were expected to fly about 1,000 feet over the White House at 115 miles per hour, one official said. A defense official told ABC News that the White House Military Office had made a request to the Pentagon on May 19 for a Marine F-35 to carry out the flyover, and that the request was approved 10 days later. Two Marine F-35s were flown from their home base in Beaufort, South Carolina, with one slated to serve as a "spare" aircraft, the official said.

美国广播公司(ABC)称，白宫此前曾表示，为了感谢波兰的购机计划，F-35B在表演时会以每小时115英里(约185公里)的速度，以大约1000英尺(约305米)的高度飞越白宫。白宫方面于5月19日向美国国防部提出表演要求，并于十天后获得批准。随后，美国海军陆战队驻守南卡罗来纳州博福特的两架F-35B当日飞抵华盛顿，其中一架作为后备。

Security watch as a F-35 fighter plane flies over the White House on June 12, 2019, in Washington DC. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

The F-35 flyover was so unusual that officials could not immediately come up with a precedent. A spokesman for the Air Force said it had no record of a White House flyover before. Although there have been flyovers during presidential inaugurations, the spokesman said the last one was in 1949 for Harry S. Truman.

《纽约时报》报道称，F-35飞越白宫“十分罕见”。美国空军发言人表示，此前还没有F-35飞越白宫的纪录，上一次战机在华盛顿低空飞行还要追溯到1949年的杜鲁门时期。

The flyover, however, startled many in the streets of Washington who did not know it was coming and, in some cases, pointed to the sky with worried looks or even started running.

这一事件也引起了美国民众的恐慌，由于事先不知道消息，华盛顿街道上的许多行人十分震惊，他们担心地看着天空，甚至开始逃跑。随后，他们纷纷在社交媒体上表达自己的不满。

(Photos: Screenshots from Twitter)

“国家首都上方的天空如今被国防承包商用来做推销展示了。”

“啊！这就是我们今天在华盛顿办公室里听到的声音！我们确实吓到了…一点点。”

“刚刚是什么鬼声音？？听起来好像是一台战机刚飞过K街一幢13层高的大楼。”

In addition to the F-35 sale, Trump said on Wednesday that as many as 1,000 U.S. forces would rotate through Poland from U.S. bases in Germany.

A U.S. official told ABC News that the 1,000 additional rotational forces in Poland would be stationed at various Polish bases in the country.

除了出售F-35战机，美国总统特朗普与波兰总统安杰伊·杜达于当日签署了防务合作联合宣言，特朗普还表示，美国将向波兰增派1000名美军士兵。

一位美国官员向ABC透露，这1000多名美军士兵将轮值驻扎在波兰的各个基地。

Photo: IC

A statement on President Duda~q~s website said the United States had also agreed to deploy to Poland an Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone squadron, establish a U.S. Special Operations capability and as well as a division headquarters. The statement added that the U.S. military moves would be undertaken at no cost to the United States.

波兰总统杜达也发表声明称，美国还同意在波兰部署一个MQ-9“死神”无人机中队，一支美国特种作战部队及一个指挥分队。

There are already 4,500 U.S. troops that rotate through Poland as part of a NATO mission. Poland has sought to entice Trump into bolstering US commitment to the country~q~s defense, including by appealing to the President~q~s ego, even floating the notion of naming the base for US troops "Fort Trump."

据此前报道，目前北约在波兰驻扎约4500名士兵。波兰政府不但希望北约能够增加驻军，甚至邀请美国在波兰境内永久驻军，并正就此与美国磋商。

同时，波兰一直试图吸引特朗普支持该国国防，甚至提出将美军基地命名为“特朗普堡”的想法。

Source: 环球网、ABC News、CNN、观察者、The New York Times、Reuters、BBC.

(Compiled by Yu Kaili)