WASHINGTON — On May 16, Heather Wilson was sworn in as secretary of the U.S. Air Force, becoming President Donald Trump's first and only civilian service head to take office after almost four months.
Air Force experts are looking to Wilson, an Air Force Academy graduate and former New Mexico congresswoman, to strongly advocate for the service during a period where the president has promised a large military buildup, but offered few details about what that means for air power.
The Air Force has been virtually unrepresented in the upper echelons of Trump's national security leadership, which consists primarily of active and retired Army and Marine Corps officials like Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — a retired Marine Corps general — and H.R. McMaster, the Army three-star general currently serving as Trump's national security advisrr. Wilson's confirmation is considered a needed advantage for the Air Force as it tries to make its priorities and challenges heard.
"We're a little light on a public face for the Air Force. She has every chance of doing that. I think she's in a great position to explain air power, and all that goes with it, not only to the Hill but to the White House," said Rebecca Grant, president of IRIS Independent Research.
"Will she choose to do that? I think maybe she will. It may not be the first thing she's thinking of, but I think her public profile as a very skilled leader and someone can explain how it is air power that enables us to do all of these operations around the world — I think she'll be able to give us that quick education."
In her first week as Air Force secretary, Wilson has signaled that balancing readiness, force structure and modernization will be her top concern.
"We know that we have to restore the readiness of the force," she told reporters after a May 17 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "We have an Air Force that is the oldest Air Force and the smallest Air Force in its history. We have a readiness problem. We also have a modernization problem, and we're not going to get well in a single year. We know that. This is going to be a recovery over a period of time."
Exactly what that means in practice is up for debate.
Trump has been effusive in detailing some aspects of his planned military buildup — such as a 350-ship Navy and active Army end strength of 540,000 troops — throughout his campaign and the early months of his administration. On the Air Force, the president has said only that he would like to see the service get up to 1,200 fighter aircraft — a goal that was likely already in motion given the service's gradually growing buy rate of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Wilson will likely take a leading role in shaping the Air Force buildup beyond that, including which programs to expand or cut, Grant said. The service is in the middle of developing or procuring a large number of expensive, high-priority weapons, including the F-35, KC-46 tanker, B-21 bomber, a new training aircraft, a JSTARS replacement and new intercontinental ballistic missiles. Wilson could be a key figure arguing for changes to those programs of record.
"I think she will be the kind of secretary to make some hard choices on modernization. I can't prejudge what those will be, but she will be the one," she said. "We've seen them study what the options are, and we've seen them lay in some early funding. … But what we haven't seen is someone really redo that plan, taking all of those things into account. That will be on her watch."
David Deptula, a retired three-star Air Force general who now heads the Mitchell Institute, characterized Wilson as "wicked smart … affable, friendly and forward thinking in the context of where the Air Force needs to go, particularly in exploiting the advantages of technology in their application to aerospace and cyber."
He first met Wilson when he testified in front of the former lawmaker during congressional hearings, and the pair got better acquainted when both served on the board of advisers for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
"The Air Force leadership — both Secretary Wilson and [Air Force Chief of Staff] Gen. [David] Goldfein — are going to have to be pretty aggressive in getting in front of the president to offer aerospace perspectives that other members of the national security team just simply don't have because of their experience in [land] warfare activities," Deptula said. But helping persuade Congress to lift the budget caps will be perhaps even more critical.
"The leadership of the Air Force has to articulate what it needs, not what the budget top line that's issued them allows," he said.
Wilson's history of working with U.S. national laboratories, which help pioneer nuclear-related technologies, could cement her as a strong proponent of key nuclear weapons programs such as the B-21 bomber, a nuclear-capable cruise missile and the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program that replaces the Minuteman III ICBMs. The new Air Force secretary has already indicated her desire to be deeply involved in space issues as the Pentagon's principle space adviser.
Beyond that, Wilson could emerge as a key point of contact for the president moving forward on F-35, Air Force One and other programs, Grant said.
"We know Trump likes to make phone calls and talk to people," she said. "I see Trump calling and saying, 'Hey, Heather, tell me again how we're doing on Air Force One,' so that she becomes the one near the top of dial list."
Valerie Insinna is Defense News' air warfare reporter. She previously worked the Navy/congressional beats for Defense Daily, which followed almost three years as a staff writer for National Defense Magazine. Prior to that, she worked as an editorial assistant for the Tokyo Shimbun’s Washington bureau.
