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.
REAPER REALIGNMENT: The Pentagon may be scaling back its request for MQ-9 Reapers, but Congress is coming to the aid of the General Atomics UAV, citing industrial base concerns. In a report on a draft version of the House’s fiscal 2014 defense spending bill, appropriators contend that the Air Force is reducing the Reaper buy too quickly — from 48 to 24 in fiscal 2013 — and halving it again to 12 in 2014. If the language is adopted by the full Congress, it would direct the U.S. Air Force to buy eight additional Reapers next year.
CIA SHUFFLE: President Obama is appointing Avril Haines as the next deputy director of the CIA. Haines a former deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel to the president for national security affairs at the White House. She replaces Michael Morell, who resigned from his post at the CIA. Morell, who has worked on and off at the CIA since 1980, will continue to work with the administration as a member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
The Pentagon may be trying to clip the U.S. Army’s purchase of 30 additional Light Utility Helicopters, but Congress is poised to help the EADS North America program. In its draft of a fiscal 2014 policy bill, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) recommends adding $135.1 million to the president’s requested funding level- — a 196.3% boost. The proposed funding increase makes the Mississippi-manufactured UH-72A Lakota one of the big winners in the mark-up. (See charts pp. 6-9.)
