Among the many resumes of President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for key Pentagon posts, aspiring Air Drive secretary Troy Meink’s stands out.
As a Protection Division insider with deep acquisition and technology-development expertise, Meink would carry to the job a authorities background not like that of Trump’s different DOD nominees. And his specialization in house may upend the priorities of a service usually dominated by Air Drive pursuits.
Todd Harrison, a senior protection coverage fellow on the American Enterprise Institute, mentioned selecting an area knowledgeable like Meink to guide the Air Drive is “consequential” and signifies that house might be a excessive precedence below the Trump administration.
“He’s solidly from an area background, not like some other secretary of the Air Drive,” Harrison advised Protection Information. “I believe that it should be meant to ship a message that the Trump administration means enterprise in the case of the House Drive and the prioritization of the House Drive.”
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 offers space-based intelligence to the navy. All through his profession, he’s held positions within the Air Drive house neighborhood, together with stints on the Air Drive House and Missile Techniques Heart and within the workplace of the deputy undersecretary of the Air Drive for house.
If confirmed, Meink will lead the Air Drive and the House Drive at a time when each providers face necessary selections concerning the dimension and form of their future power. For the Air Drive, which means designing a next-generation fighter fleet, modernizing two legs of the nuclear triad and figuring out the right way to combine extra autonomy and uncrewed plane throughout its portfolio.
In the meantime, the House Drive – which was created 5 years in the past below the primary Trump administration – is trying to double or triple its funds within the coming years to get after rising threats and new missions alike.
The following Air Drive secretary will resolve how sources are distributed between the 2 providers, and a pacesetter with Meink’s house experience may shift extra funding towards the House Drive, whose $30 billion funds for fiscal 2025 is a fraction of the Air Drive’s $188 billion request.
“The airpower advocates on the market are most likely very nervous about this choose as a result of we’re in an period the place the funds shouldn’t be rising,” Harrison mentioned. “If the House Drive goes to develop in precedence and develop in funding, which will very properly come on the expense of the Air Drive.”
Harrison famous that Meink can even inherit selections round the right way to transition missions, akin to shifting goal indication — usually carried out from the air — to house sensors and satellites.
“I believe he’ll carry, maybe, a desire or a wholesome type of new perspective on the trade-offs between air and house,” he mentioned. “There are a selection of mission areas which can be ripe to maneuver from the Air Drive aspect to the House Drive 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 labeled 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 providers.
Kari Bingen, director of the Aerospace Safety Venture on the Heart 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 may serve each the Air Drive and the House Drive properly.
“He grounds himself in technical information and evaluation,” she mentioned. “Whether or not it’s an area concern or an air concern, he’s going to strategy it thoughtfully and substantively.”
Meink’s NRO background additionally will probably inform his perspective on the distinct roles and tasks of the House Drive and the intelligence neighborhood — a generally heated matter because the service takes on new missions. The primary Trump administration pushed for larger collaboration between the organizations and even proposed consolidating the NRO below the House Drive.
Doug Loverro, a former Pentagon house coverage official, mentioned Meink’s expertise may assist clean 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 each side equally properly,” he mentioned.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s house and rising expertise reporter. She has lined the U.S. navy since 2012, with a give attention to the Air Drive and House Drive. She has reported on a number of the Protection Division’s most vital acquisition, funds and coverage challenges.
