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 Pentagon’s need for test and evaluation of new weapons systems will soon overtake the department’s capacity, at a time when senior defense officials say fast acquisition of new technologies is critical.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Ronald Reagan National Defense Forum that the Pentagon is actively working to make it easier to land contracts and produce new, needed technologies at a time the Defense Department is desperate for innovation.
