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.
A Lockheed Martin F-16CG from Aviano Air Base, Italy, had its main landing gear fail during a training flight on March 2, causing the jet to land on its belly and sustain more than $6 million in damages—the latest in a series of landing gear failures in the fleet.
The recent launch of a National Reconnaissance Office payload aboard a Rocket Lab Electron in New Zealand and the upcoming launch of another spy satellite from a Virgin LauncherOne in the UK is the “new norm” for the office as it looks to proliferate its architecture, the NRO’s director says.
The U.S. Air Force will buy SpaceX’s Starlink low Earth orbit satellite internet service to aid airlift operations in Africa and Europe, saying in a justification document that Starlink is the only provider currently able to provide service in Africa and has proven its ability to function in a combat zone.
