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.
An aging workforce, limited supply of newcomers and increased certification requirements are adding up to a looming pilot shortage, contends a new white paper by the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI). Industry will need 82,800 pilots over the next two decades but will have a smaller pool. And the regulatory environment is becoming tougher, as Congress has moved to require more training for commercial pilots, which adds cost. Under the most stringent requirements—a 1,500-hr.
Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, is championing the cause of the commercial satellite industry—removing the spacecraft and related items from the U.S. Munitions List (USML). He managed to secure bipartisan support to include this in the House version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, in part by adding a mandate for the Obama administration to list the items it wants to remove from the USML.
A Mitt Romney administration would take an “incremental” approach to U.S. defense weapons development and combat cost growth and schedule delays with “strong civilian leadership” to head off so-called “requirements creep,” say the father-and-son duo Dov and Roger Zakheim, influential players in conservative defense circles. They tell reporters that the main difference between Romney's plans and the Obama administration's handling of the Pentagon's acquisition portfolio is that Romney, co-founder of Bain Capital, would “set the tone” of efficiency and effectiveness.
