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The United States Senate on Wednesday confirmed Indian Ravi Chaudhary as assistant secretary of defense for the Air Force, one of the top civilian leadership positions in the Pentagon.
The Senate voted 65-29 to confirm the former Air Force officer’s nomination with more than a dozen votes from the opposition Republican Party.
Chaudhary previously served as a senior executive at the US Department of Transportation, where he was director of advanced programs and innovation, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Commercial Space.
He was responsible for executing advanced development and research programs in support of the FAA’s commercial space transportation mission. While at the transportation department, he also served as executive director of regional and hub operations, where he oversaw the integration and support of aviation operations in nine regions.
During his service in the US Air Force from 1993 to 2015, Chaudhary completed a variety of operational, engineering and senior assignments. As a C-17 pilot, he conducted global flight operations, including numerous combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as a ground deployment as director of the Multinational Corps Personnel Recovery Center in Iraq.
As a flight test engineer, he was responsible for the flight certification of military avionics and hardware for force modernization programs that support flight safety.
Earlier in his career, he supported space launch operations for the Global Positioning System (GPS) and led Phase III and flight safety activities to ensure full operational capability of the first GPS constellation.
As a systems engineer, Chaudhary supported NASA’s International Space Station security activities to ensure the safety of NASA astronauts. He also served as a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the Obama administration. In this role, he advised the President on executive branch efforts to improve veteran support for the AAPI community.
Chaudhary holds a PhD in Executive Leadership and Innovation from Georgetown University’s DLS program, an MS in Industrial Engineering from Saint Mary’s University as a NASA Graduate Fellow, an MS in Operational Arts and Military Science from the Air Force Base, and a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Academy of the United States.
He is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute and holds Department of Defense certifications in program management, test and evaluation, and systems engineering.
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