COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AFNS) -- Declaring “this is the moment when our nation’s Space Force comes of age,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said April 15 that talented, innovative personnel and acquisition transformation will fuel the service's success and dominance.
“I truly believe we have a once in a generation opportunity to make the necessary changes for the Department to maintain our advantage, and we will get this right,” Meink said in his keynote remarks to the Space Symposium.
“To make this happen we need to make sure that we have the right talent, that our teams are empowered, and that they have the right resources,” Meink said.
The Department, and especially the Space Force, must adapt to a world of determined adversaries and eye-watering technological change.
“We are in the middle of one of the biggest periods of technological change in military history. Advances in microelectronics, adaptive manufacturing, capital markets, autonomy, AI and more give the DAF a unique opportunity to drive down costs and drive-up effectiveness against the entire range of threats.”
He then addressed each of those elements in turn while also giving a hint about the budget expectations. The Department, he told an audience of Guardians, industry leaders and elected officials, anticipates that the Space Force’s budget will continue to grow robustly as it has over the last several years.
But to squeeze every benefit out of every dollar provided - regardless of the ultimate total — Meink emphasized that the Department must reform the way it develops and buys hardware to move faster and with certainty.
“Our challenge is … doing so in what might be the fastest period of technological change ever,” he said. “We, all of us, must take advantage of that disruptive tech faster than our competition, whether for national security or economic security.
“And we’re doing exactly that — right now, both the Air Force and the Space Force are undergoing massive programs of modernization,” Meink said.
Process and bureaucracy only go so far. “Talent is the single most important ingredient, and we have a lot of it,” Meink said. “We can have the perfect org structure, but unless we have dedicated professionals putting in the hard work, we will not be successful.”
Driving that effort is a reformatted acquisition process that Meink said drives decision-making to the lowest level possible while investing more authority — and responsibility — in the portfolio acquisition executive.
“Essentially, what we are doing is giving program teams the authority, support and flexibility to make decisions faster; we are empowering the teams,” Meink said, reprising an effort that has become one of his most important priorities since becoming secretary.
“As a rule, we’re delegating nearly every decision authority that we’re legally allowed to down to the PAE level,” he said. “I’ve previously mentioned how we’ve delegated 85% of contracting authorities down to the PAE level. For the space force that is 92%.”
To succeed, Meink said there needs to be a cultural shift too. Waiting for a state-of-the-art piece of equipment to be perfect (and usually over-built) no longer works, he said. Instead, the new approach aims to limit requirements to only what is needed to build a minimum viable product. That leaves out some of the “nice-to-have” features that in the past would have been included at a cost of more dollars and time.
“It doesn’t matter if we have something that works perfectly under all conditions,” Meink said. “If it is too expensive and we can’t build enough of them to be effective, it’s a failed program.”
In order for that approach to fully succeed, however, Meink said the Department must be able to attract - and retain - personnel with special skills, talent and experience to guide projects. High on the list are people skilled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (known as STEM).
“If we don’t get kids interested by middle school, they are not likely to go into STEM and that ultimately hurts our national security,” he said, adding that industry has a major role to play too.
“Industry can and should do more to invest in our next generation every bit as much as they invest in stock buybacks and dividends,” he said.
The stakes are high, he said, mentioning recent, real-life examples.
“We are ready to win the fight tonight; just look at Midnight Hammer, Absolute Resolve and Epic Fury,” he said. “I’ve been so impressed watching our team succeed even in the hardest of circumstances. Supporting them is why I’m here, why you’re here, why we’re all here.”