Brian Everstine is the Pentagon Editor for Aviation Week, based in Washington, D.C. Before joining Aviation Week in August 2021, Brian covered the Pentagon for Air Force Magazine. Brian began covering defense aviation in 2011 as a reporter for Military Times. Over a decade as a defense journalist, he has reported from dozens of bases at home and abroad, including austere airstrips in Afghanistan, the cockpit of a B-52 over the South Pacific and the boom operator station of a KC-46. Before the military beat, Brian covered the Washington state legislature for the Associated Press.
At the top of Air Mobility Command’s wish list, and among its biggest challenges, is connecting its aircraft through common datalinks and communication channels so that refueling tankers and airlifters can provide more to a fight beyond their traditional roles.
The Pentagon is consulting with Ukraine on how to integrate Western, NATO standard air defense systems with its existing stock of Soviet-era systems as the first U.S.-provided advanced ground-to-air missile systems have arrived in the country’s war with Russia.
The U.S. and South Korea are focusing on large-scale exercises aimed at increasing combat readiness, as North Korea has continued its barrage of missile tests, including the failed launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Nov. 3.
