In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, Troy Meink, the nominee to become the next Secretary of the Department of the Air Force, emphasized the urgent need to modernize the service’s aging nuclear arsenal and streamline its acquisition processes.

Meink, a former deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office and a retired Air Force officer, acknowledged the high stakes involved in overhauling the nation’s nuclear triad and committed to ensuring these complex efforts stay on track.

A central focus of the hearing was the troubled LGM-35A Sentinel program — the Air Force’s replacement for its aging fleet of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. The current arsenal, consisting of approximately 450 missiles, has been in service for over 50 years.

The Sentinel, developed by Northrop Grumman, is intended to be the backbone of the land-based portion of the nuclear triad for decades to come. However, spiraling costs have cast a shadow over the program’s future.

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The Sentinel’s projected expenses have risen so sharply that the program triggered a “critical Nunn-McCurdy breach,” a designation under federal law that requires a thorough review of any defense acquisition program that experiences excessive cost overruns.

Despite the challenges, the Department of the Air Force concluded in its review that the Sentinel is too vital to cancel.

“If confirmed,” Meink told lawmakers, “I will review the results of the Sentinel Nunn-McCurdy breach study and ensure that we take the right steps going forward.”

He added that continued oversight of the B-21 Raider — the Air Force’s next-generation stealth bomber — would also be among his top priorities.

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The B-21, designed to be the air-based leg of the nuclear triad, has been widely praised for staying on schedule and within budget.

The importance of nuclear modernization was further underscored by Michael Duffey, the Biden administration’s nominee for UnderSecretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment, who testified alongside Meink.

Duffey called nuclear modernization the “backbone” of the U.S. strategic deterrent and stressed the need for cooperation across agencies to maintain America’s nuclear capabilities.

“Ensuring that we have a modern, capable nuclear enterprise that not only includes the B-21 — which is a successful acquisition program, by all accounts — but the Columbia-class submarine and the Sentinel nuclear ICBM are critical,” Duffey said, referencing the Navy’s next-generation ballistic missile submarine.

Duffey pledged to work closely with the National Nuclear Security Administration and Congress to ensure the U.S. maintains the “high-quality systems needed for the safe and secure use of nuclear weapons.”

Still, lawmakers raised concerns about how the Air Force will balance nuclear modernization with its other responsibilities.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) warned that the service may not have sufficient funding to manage both its conventional missions and nuclear upgrades simultaneously.

Meink acknowledged the financial challenge, noting the historic scale of modernization currently underway across all of the Air Force’s core mission areas. “Those systems are pretty expensive,” he said, adding that one of his first tasks, if confirmed, would be to evaluate the full scope of the service’s modernization and readiness needs.

“I plan to come back to Congress with that information,” Meink said, “so we can further discuss what needs to be done.”

Senator Cotton also brought up another longstanding issue plaguing the Air Force — its chronic pilot shortage, which currently stands at an estimated 1,800 pilots.

Meink, who served as a KC-135 Stratotanker navigator during his military career, expressed a deep understanding of the issue and said he would make it a top concern.

“We’ve got to make sure — not just with pilots, but across our highly skilled areas within our workforce — that they have the opportunity to do what they’ve been trained, what they love to do,” Meink said.

“Since I was a navigator, we’ve always struggled with maintaining pilot levels. It is much larger than just the funding.”

He added that solutions will have to go beyond simply raising pay.

Addressing quality of service, career progression, and access to meaningful flight time will be essential, he said, to retaining the skilled personnel the Air Force depends on.

With challenges ranging from nuclear modernization to workforce retention, Meink faces a daunting task if confirmed as Secretary of the Air Force.

But his testimony signaled a willingness to confront those issues head-on — and to do so with transparency and collaboration.

“I look forward to working with this committee and with our partners across government to ensure that the Air Force remains ready, capable, and equipped for the challenges ahead,” Meink said.

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