SEPTEMBER 24, 2025 – In his most high-profile speech since becoming Secretary of the Air Force in May, Troy Meink emphasized familiar themes – the need to perfect readiness, the necessity to modernize the Air Force and Space Force and remaining focused on “taking care of our people.”
“We must do what we’ve done many times in the past – work to maintain air and space dominance,” Meink said in his keynote address to an overflowing crowd of several thousand at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference.
The United States and its Air Force and Space Force are confronting determined adversaries today who have spent decades working to erode the United State’s advantages in air and space, he said. While the U.S. remains superior, the gap has narrowed. China in particular “has been laser focused.”
“The ability for us to dominate the air domain has really come under threat a number of times; we’ve had our cage rattled a bit,” he said. “But we went after it and today the U.S. has dominance.”
“Our job is to maintain that dominance, the advantage that the U.S. has always had,” Meink told Airmen, Guardians in the audience as well as officials from industry, Capitol Hill and interest groups. “We have to innovate faster. … The only way we will be able to maintain our advantage is to innovate and we have to innovate faster than our adversaries.”
Part of successfully innovating, Meink said, is modernization. Like others, Meink pointed out that many of the aircraft being flown today are older than their pilots. He underscored the point by displaying a two side-by-side pictures – an older picture of him as a young airman 30 years ago standing next to a KC-135 tanker. The newer picture recaptured the scene, but this time with Meink as Secretary.
The plane in each picture, he told the audience, was the same, still in service, still providing a crucial mission refueling aircraft in defense of the nation. And, he added, it looked to be in even better condition today than it was when he flew it over three decades ago.
While the ability to keep planes and other aging equipment operating is impressive, he said, it is the reason the Department of the Air Force is undergoing what Meink said is the most aggressive modernization campaign in its 78-year history.
He name-checked some – the recently announced F-47 sixth-generation fighter, the in-service F-35, a fifth-generation aircraft that is the backbone of the Air Force fleet, the F-15EX, adding new engines and radar to the ageless B-52 bomber and continued development of the next-generation B-21 bomber.
Additionally, Meink mentioned modernizing and upgrading the land-based nuclear leg with the Sentinel project, space control, and moving to expand the ability to launch more satellites and equipment into space, continuing to develop the so-called Collaborative Combat Aircraft which are uncrewed craft that perform a series of functions.
Meink also highlighted a less glamorous but equally important pursuit – modernizing munitions. The United States, he said, has “built some of the best munitions on the planet. … The challenge we have with munitions is scaling them up,” he said.
Modernization also touches other areas, he said
Technology is important, he said, but not everything. “We have to be innovative in how we operate. We have to be innovative in how we maintain our systems. We have to be innovative in how we train. We really need to be innovative across the board. And if we’re not thinking that way from our level all the way down to the individual Airman or Guardian at the very lowest ranks were not going to be successful.”
The need to innovate, he said, extends even to how the Department acquires things it needs. The Department must have highly trained and technically sufficient personnel to ensure that the hardware developed meets the need, stays on budget and performs as intended.
“There is no replacement for technical skill in acquisitions,” he said.
On readiness, Meink said he knew “there was a readiness challenge, I didn’t appreciate how significant that readiness challenge was.” One focus, he said, must be on efficiency; squeezing every benefit out of every piece of equipment and dollar the Department has.
He highlighted five different aspects of readiness across the Department. First the need to focus on systems and concepts that can survive in contested environments – showing a video of a Ukrainian low-cost quadcopter destroying a sophisticated Russian UAS. Second, he highlighted that we need to continue to push industry to improve the reliability of spare parts. Next, he highlighted internal initiatives to better leverage the data we have to improve both maintenance and operations. Finally, he discussed installations across the Department.
“Our facilities are part of our weapon systems. In many cases, we fight from our facilities, both in the Air and Space Force side of the house.”
Meink’s final major focus is ensuring all Air Force and Space Force personnel are fulfilled both professionally and at home.
“People are the most important thing we have; the most critical…I have zero concern about the ability of the Department to employ combat power. We have the best trained, most talented workforce the Department of the Air Force has ever had,” he said. “We are asking them to maintain and work on some of the most technical systems … and we need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to support them.”
He ended with a challenge to the audience.
“The challenge is, how do we make sure (Airmen and Guardians) have the tools at the mass and scale they need to be successful. … If we, as leadership, are not doing everything we can to support you, moving fast and being innovative, then you need to tell us because we will not be successful without that.”
Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs