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.
The FAA may still be lagging a congressionally mandated timeline for integrating unmanned aircraft into domestic airspace by 2015, but at least a new annual road map shows that the agency is getting somewhere.
At $10 billion, the Defense Department and National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) planned life-extension and upgrade program for the B-61 nuclear warhead was bound to draw attention on Capitol Hill. During a recent hearing, the NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs, Donald Cook, and the U.S. Strategic Command chief, USAF Gen. Robert Kehler, defended the B-61-12 against Democratic members concerned with spending on any new nuclear warhead, particularly when the B-83, an alternative to the B-61, will not need refurbishment for a decade (see page 48).
The Defense Department's most secret projects, known as Special Access Programs (SAP), will be protected from automatic declassification for 40 years or more, according to a Pentagon manual for the handling of materials for the military's most sensitive programs. SAP files prior to Jan. 1, 1982, will be protected until Dec. 31, 2021, regardless of their age, the new rule states. Later files will be protected for four decades, “unless they are reviewed and submitted for another extension,” according to the guide published Oct.
