United States: Air Force Secretary Troy Meink outlines modernization, readiness and acquisition reform

“Our fundamental mission also stays the same – Defend the homeland and deter all adversaries,” Meink said. “However, the world continues to evolve.”

Meink said defending the homeland includes the entire hemisphere and spans threats from violent extremists and drug traffickers to border security, missile defense and nuclear deterrence. From a conventional deterrence perspective, he said China continues to expand and modernize its military at an extremely fast pace, keeping the department focused on the Indo-Pacific challenge.

“Given that threat environment, the Air Force and the Space Force must be ready at any time for any threat across the entire spectrum of conflict,” Meink said.

He stressed that modernization and readiness cannot be treated as competing priorities. “We can’t think about modernization and readiness as an either-or thing,” he added. “We have to do both simultaneously, along with a focus on production and sustainment. All of those come with different challenges. We must be ready to fight tonight. But we also have to be ready to fight next month, next year, next decade. That’s what our nation has asked of us for the last 250 years, and that’s what we will continue to deliver into the future.”

A central element of his acquisition reform effort is the portfolio acquisition executive construct. Meink explained that these executives will interact with requirements and resourcing functions across the department and operate in a structure that in some cases mirrors the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager model at the Office of the Secretary of War level, highlighting close collaboration with Gen. Dale White, DRPM for Critical Major Weapon Systems.

“Our focus is to deliver mission effective capabilities faster, and to do that we must innovate faster than our adversaries,” Meink said.

He said success in delivering capability to the joint force depends on talent, empowerment and resources. “I believe that you need three things to be successful in delivering that capability to the joint force – talent, empowerment and the right resources,” he continued.

On empowerment, Meink said authorities alone are not enough and leaders must support their teams in using new authorities granted under the portfolio construct. He announced three changes moving under the new framework, including support functions, making requirement and program baseline trades, and delegating contracting authorities, with additional changes expected.

Addressing industry, Meink referenced the 2026 National Defense Strategy and described how the Department of the Air Force is “Supercharging the Defense Industrial Base.” He emphasized increasing production of current weapon systems and designing future systems with producibility in mind.

“It doesn’t matter if we have something that works perfectly under all conditions,” he said. “If it is too expensive and I can’t build enough of them to be effective, it’s a failed program.”

He also underscored the importance of an enterprise-wide perspective on requirements and resources, pointing to A5/7 Next as the Air Force’s single source for modernization investment priority and to an expanded Space Warfighting Analysis Center serving a similar role for the Space Force. He concluded by thanking the workforce.

“We have done some incredibly impressive things together this last year, and it is all thanks to the amazing Airmen, Guardians and civilians we have on our team,” Meink said. “No matter how much changes, one thing is constant: the talent we have across our department. It continues to amaze me on a daily basis.”