Brian Everstine is the Pentagon Editor for Aviation Week, based in Washington, D.C. Before joining Aviation Week in August 2021, Brian covered the Pentagon for Air Force Magazine. Brian began covering defense aviation in 2011 as a reporter for Military Times. Over a decade as a defense journalist, he has reported from dozens of bases at home and abroad, including austere airstrips in Afghanistan, the cockpit of a B-52 over the South Pacific and the boom operator station of a KC-46. Before the military beat, Brian covered the Washington state legislature for the Associated Press.
The grounding of more than 100 C-130Hs will extend to months or even years, depending on how quickly new propeller systems can be procured from a production line that already has orders to work through while the service is searching across the globe for existing propellers to retrofit.
At the top of Air Mobility Command’s wish list, and among its biggest challenges, is connecting its aircraft through common datalinks and communication channels so that refueling tankers and airlifters can provide more to a fight beyond their traditional roles.
