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.
News of cost overruns on Boeing’s KC-46A tanker program have drawn the ire of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the senator whose inquiries helped to bury Boeing’s tanker-lease deal early in the last decade. McCain objects to the cost structure of the contract Boeing won in February, in which the government may be on the hook for 60%, or $600 million, in cost overruns on the program that was billed as fixed-price.
The decision by three of four defense committees in the U.S. Congress to cut funding for the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) is facing blowback from Germany, one of the three international partners developing the missile defense system. President Obama’s budget request for fiscal 2012 and 2013 includes $804 million to honor the nation’s agreement with Germany and Italy to finish development work on the program, despite the fact that the U.S. Army has no plans to buy the missile.
The FAA’s budget has a lot in common with airline passengers headed out of town on a holiday weekend—it is stuck in a long queue. A House Appropriations panel was supposed to begin considering a bill to fund the Transportation Department, and within that, the FAA. But the bill will likely have to wait until after the August recess, according to a key lawmaker, while Congress works to come to an agreement on the debt ceiling and other contentious spending bills for other departments, including the Environmental Protection Agency. But Rep.
