Steve covers military aviation, missiles and space for the Aviation Week Network, based in Washington.
Born in a U.S. Air Force family, he grew up on military bases around the world and came to Washington in 1997 to work for Army Times Publishing Co. as a journalist. Steve helped launch the Military.com portal in 2000, then joined the editorial team for Aviation Week’s web site in 2001. He reported on the Pentagon for Aerospace Daily in 2002 and 2003.
From September 2003 to September 2018, Steve covered defense and aviation issues and managed staff as the U.S. bureau chief for Jane’s Defence Weekly and later FlightGlobal. He has covered aviation stories on six continents and won multiple awards, including the 2017 Aerospace Media Awards honor for Best In-Depth Feature on the effort to revive Russia’s commercial aviation industry.
A new air-launched missile with 30-40 km (16.2-21.6 nm) range that can be used to destroy integrated air defense systems and lightly armored vehicles is now being pursued by the U.S. Army’s aviation branch.
The service’s overall program of record of 420 aircraft is expected to remain unchanged, but the fleet split between the current plan to buy 353 short-takeoff-vertical-landing (Stovl)-capable F-35Bs and 67 carrier-based F-35Cs could change dramatically.
