AURORA, Colo. (AFNS) -- After nearly 10 months on the job, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink was back in front of a crowd of Airmen, Guardians, allies, partners and industry leaders, excited to deliver his keynote at the 2026 Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium, Feb. 23.
In his keynote address, he laid out his vision for the Department of the Air Force’s acquisition transformation effort.
“Our focus is to deliver mission effective capabilities faster, and to do that we must innovate faster than our adversaries,” Meink said.
Meink discussed the centerpiece of that effort: the portfolio acquisition executive. He also discussed how those PAEs will interact with the broader corporate structure, including the requirements and resourcing functions within the department. In the fireside chat that followed, he re-emphasized this message, focusing particularly on the need to improve sustainment and increase production.
“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.
When it comes to empowerment, he stated that authorities are necessary, but not efficient for empowerment. Leadership needs to support their team’s advantage of the new authorities that PAEs will have. He announced three changes that are moving under this new construct to include support functions, making requirement and program baseline trades, and delegating contracting authorities. He also hinted at many more that will be aligned soon.
He made a comparison to the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager, which is an OSW-level initiative, stating that the DAF’s PAEs will ultimately look similar to the DRPM construct where possible. He also highlighted the close collaboration that he has with Gen. Dale White, DRPM for Critical Major Weapon Systems.
“The entire acquisition enterprise is doing the hard work to think through these changes and make sure we do this right,” Meink said.
When it comes to requirements and resources, Meink underlined the importance of an enterprise perspective. On the Air Force side, he pointed to A5/7 Next as the single source for modernization investment priority. On the Space Force side, he pointed to an expanded Space Warfighting Analysis Center that will fill a similar role.
He also had a message for industry in the room. Borrowing a line from the 2026 National Defense Strategy, he described how the DAF is “Supercharging the Defense Industrial Base.” He emphasized the need to increase production on current weapon systems, and to design future weapon systems for producibility.
“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.”
At the beginning of his speech, Meink reemphasized his priorities of modernization, readiness and people, and touched on how the fundamental mission of the Air and Space Force.
“Our fundamental mission also stays the same – Defend the homeland and deter all adversaries,” he said. “However, the world continues to evolve.”
Meink described defending the homeland as including the entire hemisphere, from violent extremists to drug traffickers, border security, missile defense and nuclear deterrence.
He also stated that China continues to expand and modernize its military at an extremely fast past; therefore, the Department of the Air Force remains focused on them from a conventional deterrence perspective.
He connected the two concepts by underscoring that the Air Force and Space Force must be ready at any time for any threat across the entire spectrum of conflict.
Meink continued that the one change he sees to his priorities is how we focus on modernization and readiness.
“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.”
He finished with a thank you to the men and women of the Department.
“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.”