Based in Washington, Jen manages Aviation Week’s worldwide defense, space and security coverage.
Prior to taking on her current 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.
Two government sensors that may fly in space under the new U.S. Air Force Hosted Payloads Solutions program (see page 27) are a French-built advanced data-collection system that will receive data from ocean buoys and electronic-tagged marine life, and a Franco-Canadian search-and-rescue satellite-aided tracking system. Both were developed for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and both were left without rides to orbit when the joint civil/military National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess) was cancelled in 2010.
The commercial aircraft industry has largely stayed on the sidelines of the political tension between Russia and the West, but that may be changing. The latest round of sanctions imposed after the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 includes the suspension of Ex-Im Bank deals with Russia—a decision that could hurt Boeing’s commercial aircraft sales there.