Based in Washington, Jen managed Aviation Week’s worldwide defense, space and security coverage from 2013 to January 2024.
Prior to taking on the Executive Editor role, Jen was Aviation Week's Congressional Editor. Jen came to Aviation Week in March 2011 from Politico, where she covered the intersection of defense and politics. She also worked as a reporter and editor for Defense Daily, Inside the Army, The Other Paper and The Columbus Dispatch.
Jen received a Master’s degree in journalism as a Kiplinger Fellow at the Ohio State University. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in history and journalism from the University of Michigan.
The Senate finally has confirmed Alan Estevez as the deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics after a long delay over parochial concerns. In March, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a high-ranking Republican, had placed a senatorial “hold” on Estevez's confirmation to be the second-ranking defense acquisition official to again protest the Pentagon's decision to buy helicopters from the Russian state-owned Rosoboronexport for the Afghan security force, spurning helicopters made in part by Texas-based Bell Helicopter. Sen.
The FAA may still be lagging a congressionally mandated timeline for integrating unmanned aircraft into domestic airspace by 2015, but at least a new annual road map shows that the agency is getting somewhere.
At $10 billion, the Defense Department and National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) planned life-extension and upgrade program for the B-61 nuclear warhead was bound to draw attention on Capitol Hill. During a recent hearing, the NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs, Donald Cook, and the U.S. Strategic Command chief, USAF Gen. Robert Kehler, defended the B-61-12 against Democratic members concerned with spending on any new nuclear warhead, particularly when the B-83, an alternative to the B-61, will not need refurbishment for a decade (see page 48).
