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.
The arrival of the first KC-10 at the “boneyard” on July 13 begins a five-year retirement process for the 59-aircraft fleet as the Boeing KC-46 enters service with a capability limited by unresolved deficiencies through at least 2023.
The Democrat-controlled House Appropriations defense subcommittee agreed to support the higher development cost for the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon in the fiscal 2021 spending bill, but the members do not “intend to approve funding for further cost increases” beyond the latest estimate of $1.364 billion.
The U.S. approval, as expected, clears the path for the Japan Ministry of Defense to become the largest customer for the F-35 outside the U.S. and expand the customer base for the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing F-35B.
