Trump To Nominate Troy Meink As Air Force Secretary

President-elect Donald Trump is poised to nominate Troy Meink, principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), to be the next secretary of the Air Force, Aviation Week has learned.

If confirmed, Meink will replace outgoing Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. Additionally, Trump is expected to nominate former U.S. Space Force officer Matthew Lohmeier to be undersecretary of the Air Force.

Trump’s transition office has not responded to a request for comment.

Meink is the NRO’s principal deputy director, having served in the role since October 2020. He has previously served as deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space and director for space staff as a member of the senior executive service. Previous roles include director of signals intelligence systems acquisition for the NRO. His background is extensively focused on space communications, following service in the Air Force as a navigator and flight-test engineer. He also was a lead test engineer for the design and evaluation of ballistic missile test vehicles for the Missile Defense Agency, according to his NRO biography.

Lohmeier served in the Space Force as commander of the 11^th Space Warning Squadron before being removed from service after writing a book called "Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal Of Conquest & The Unmaking Of The American Military" criticizing social policies in the military. He is an Air Force Academy graduate who flew the T-38 and F-15C. Lohmeier’s role will further Trump's goal, and that of defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, to change social policies within the Pentagon.

With both nominees having extensive military space backgrounds, the picks will further serve to increase the role of the Space Force within the department of the Air Force more than five years after Trump established the new service.