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.
Think fighting three wars simultaneously was tough? Try convincing lawmakers to negotiate entitlement and tax reform while keeping their paws off the Pentagon's war chest—and do it by the end of November. That is the position being pursued by the Pentagon and the defense industry, which are joined at the hip in fighting anything larger than the $400 billion in reductions to the military till that was dealt last April.
The U.S. Capitol has been consumed with battles over deficit reduction. But as plans for fiscal 2012 get down to specifics, a new round of battles is set to begin—over individual programs including Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and its Medium Extended Air Defense System.
A U.S. Senate panel’s cut to Pentagon purchasing in fiscal 2012 is one-third less than it seems. A bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee Sept. 15 cuts baseline procurement spending by $6 billion and shifts $2.9 billion to the supplemental account that funds the war in Afghanistan. The 22 budget lines include three of the Defense Department’s highest-profile UAV programs: the MQ-1A Gray Eagle, MQ-8 Fire Scout and the MQ-9 Reaper.
