How Trump’s Air Force pick could elevate space priorities

Among the many resumes of President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for key Pentagon posts, aspiring Air Power secretary Troy Meink’s stands out.

As a Protection Division insider with deep acquisition and technology-development expertise, Meink would convey to the job a authorities background in contrast to that of Trump’s different DOD nominees. And his specialization in house might upend the priorities of a service usually dominated by Air Power pursuits.

Todd Harrison, a senior protection coverage fellow on the American Enterprise Institute, mentioned selecting an area professional like Meink to guide the Air Power is “consequential” and signifies that house might be a excessive precedence beneath the Trump administration.

“He’s solidly from an area background, in contrast to every other secretary of the Air Power,” Harrison informed Protection Information. “I believe that it should be supposed to ship a message that the Trump administration means enterprise in relation to the Area Power and the prioritization of the Area Power.”

In Meink’s present function as deputy director of the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace, or NRO, he oversees the day-to-day operations of the spy company, which gives space-based intelligence to the navy. All through his profession, he’s held positions within the Air Power house group, together with stints on the Air Power Area and Missile Programs Middle and within the workplace of the deputy undersecretary of the Air Power for house.

If confirmed, Meink will lead the Air Power and the Area Power at a time when each companies face essential selections in regards to the dimension and form of their future drive. For the Air Power, which means designing a next-generation fighter fleet, modernizing two legs of the nuclear triad and figuring out methods to combine extra autonomy and uncrewed plane throughout its portfolio.

In the meantime, the Area Power – which was created 5 years in the past beneath the primary Trump administration – is seeking to double or triple its funds within the coming years to get after rising threats and new missions alike.

The following Air Power secretary will resolve how assets are distributed between the 2 companies, and a frontrunner with Meink’s house experience might shift extra funding towards the Area Power, whose $30 billion funds for fiscal 2025 is a fraction of the Air Power’s $188 billion request.

“The airpower advocates on the market are in all probability very nervous about this choose as a result of we’re in an period the place the funds is just not rising,” Harrison mentioned. “If the Area Power goes to develop in precedence and develop in funding, which will very nicely come on the expense of the Air Power.”

Harrison famous that Meink may also inherit selections round methods to transition missions, akin to transferring goal indication — usually carried out from the air — to house sensors and satellites.

“I believe he’ll convey, maybe, a desire or a wholesome form of new perspective on the trade-offs between air and house,” he mentioned. “There are a selection of mission areas which might be ripe to maneuver from the Air Power aspect to the Area Power aspect. A few of that’s already beginning to occur, a few of it may very well be accelerated.”

Throughout Meink’s tenure on the NRO, the largely categorised company’s public-facing successes have included launching greater than 100 ISR satellites as a part of a proliferated constellation in low Earth orbit and partnering extra intently with industrial firms for satellite tv for pc imagery and different companies.

Kari Bingen, director of the Aerospace Safety Challenge on the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research and principal deputy undersecretary for intelligence throughout Trump’s first time period, mentioned Meink has been at the forefront of advancing information processing and analytic capabilities — an experience that can serve each the Air Power and the Area Power nicely.

“He grounds himself in technical info and evaluation,” she mentioned. “Whether or not it’s an area situation or an air situation, he’s going to method it thoughtfully and substantively.”

Meink’s NRO background additionally will possible inform his perspective on the distinct roles and obligations of the Area Power and the intelligence group — a generally heated subject because the service takes on new missions. The primary Trump administration pushed for larger collaboration between the organizations and even proposed consolidating the NRO beneath the Area Power.

Doug Loverro, a former Pentagon house coverage official, mentioned Meink’s expertise might assist easy out a few of these discussions.

“This helps make that course of work higher as a result of now you’ll have anyone who understands either side equally nicely,” he mentioned.