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.
In the summer of 2021, the U.S. Air Force appeared to have a clear schedule for its refueling future: continued deliveries of Boeing’s KC-46 for the next several years, a “bridge tanker” KC-Y to follow starting in 2029 and then the next-generation KC-Z to follow beginning in the mid-2030s.
The U.S. Army on Aug. 15 transferred its satellite communications mission to the U.S. Space Force, putting control of all military satcom under one command.
U.S. Air Force and Navy crews launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile early Aug. 16 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, in the first test since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
