Senate confirms Meink as next Air Force secretary

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Troy Meink as the next Air Force secretary in a 74-25 vote, with multiple Democrats breaking ranks to vote for President Donald Trump’s nominee.

Meink, who previously served as deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office, will now take charge of the Air Force and Space Force. He has a deep background in acquisition and technology development specializing in space and also served as NRO’s director of signals intelligence systems acquisition.

His career at the Air Force has included service as deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space and, while at the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, stints as a program manager, senior research engineer and chief technical adviser. He served in the Air Force beginning in 1988 as a navigator on the KC-135 Stratotanker.

Meink will take over the Department of the Air Force at a time of significant transformation, as virtually all major portions of its aircraft fleet are in the process of modernizing. That includes overseeing the service’s planned sixth-generation fighter, dubbed the F-47, as prime contractor Boeing begins the complicated process of developing and then delivering a complex, advanced aircraft without breaking the bank.

The Air Force is also developing multiple versions of semiautonomous drone wingmen, known as collaborative combat aircraft, that will fly alongside the F-47, the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter and potentially other aircraft.

The service is in the midst of a major revamp of its bomber force as it brings on the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider stealth bomber to replace the retiring B-1 and B-2 bombers. The Air Force eventually plans to have a two-bomber fleet made up of the B-21, alongside heavily revamped B-52J Stratofortresses.

And the Air Force is worried about its LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile. That program, which is to be built by Northrop Grumman, is planned to succeed the aging Minuteman III nuclear missile program, but higher-than-expected construction costs have forced the service to rethink its approach to Sentinel.

Meink’s acquisition background could help the service manage these multiple programs. His space expertise could also benefit the Space Force, whose missions are expanding and which has sought to grow its budget to handle them.

In his nomination hearing in March, Meink pledged to push for the Space Force to get the resources it needs, given the growing role it will likely play in future military actions.

“Space is going to be one of the determining factors” in a future conflict, Meink said. “We definitely need to get that right.”

But Meink’s relationship with SpaceX founder and Trump administration adviser Elon Musk created controversy. Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois in February raised concerns about what they termed a “potential quid pro quo” between Meink and Musk, after reports surfaced that Meink had favored SpaceX for a contract while running NRO.

“These are incredibly serious allegations of misconduct and favoritism,” they wrote in a letter to Meink. “These reports raise concerns about your ability, if confirmed as secretary, to treat contractors fairly and prioritize the Air Force’s mission over Elon Musk’s business interests.”

According to a Politico report, Meink disclosed to lawmakers in written responses that Musk was present for his interview with Trump, but said several other people were also present and Musk did not ask any questions. Musk’s presence at the interview raised eyebrows among some ethics experts, who called it unusual.

Meink denied having a relationship with Musk or SpaceX beyond executing his duties as head of NRO, and said he did not ask for Musk to support him to be Air Force secretary, nor did Musk ask him for anything.