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.
The MQ-9 strike in the heart of Kabul that took out al-Qaida’s senior leader was the culmination of almost a year of “over-the-horizon” U.S. counterterror operations, and a sign of how the U.S. wants to operate its Reaper fleet in the future.
The U.S. Space Force is set to complete its Space-Based Infrared System missile detection and missile warning constellation this week with the launch of GEO-6 set for Aug. 4.
Russia is increasing its influence in Western Africa, with more than 1,000 mercenaries bolstered by new air-surveillance radars and air-defense systems in Mali deployed to keep the West from watching, the head of U.S. forces on the continent says.
