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.
A Boeing KC-46 took off from its home base in Kansas on Oct. 25 and flew west toward military airspace in Utah in a mission to test a new tactic for the refueler, one that has become controversial since the plan first came to light over the summer.
The U.S. Air Force next year will start defining what its future airlift capability will be, speeding up the work alongside an accelerated timeline for a next-generation tanker.
The Pentagon needs to develop and acquire more agile missile tracking sensors and defeat systems, with a specific focus on regional hypersonic threats and protecting the island of Guam, as adversaries—especially China—increase their offensive capabilities, a new policy statement says.
