Draft:Dr. Ravi Chaudhary

Dr. Chaudhary served 21 years in the Air Force, where he supported numerous developmental engineering programs, and was a pilot in the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III. He also deployed to Iraq in 2008 with the Army's 18th Airborne Corps and Multi-National Corps - Iraq under the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency. As a C-17 pilot, he flew critical combat missions during Operation ANACONDA after 9-11, and supported the Northern Alliance capture of Mazir-i-Sharif, 101st Airborne Assault into Kandahar, Afghanistan, and numerous classified missions for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Early in his career, he served as a Delta II rocket engineer, which delivered the first Global Positioning System satellites to space and achieved full operational capability of the constellation. As a systems engineer, he also supported NASA’s International Space Station protection activities to ensure the safety of astronauts. He also served as a flight test engineer, and conducted numerous flight tests for the Air Force fleet, primarily in aircraft such as the C-5, C-17, C-130, C-141, F-15, T-38, and T-37.^[6] He served in multiple assignments at the Pentagon, including strategic planning, budgeting, and speech writer for the Air Force Chief of Staff Executive Action Group. Dr. Chaudhary was a DoD Level III Acquisition Officer and published numerous articles in future strategy, aircraft design, business transformation and space operations.^[7]

Following his retirement from the Air Force in 2015, Dr. Chaudhary was appointed to the Federal Aviation Administration Executive Service as Executive Director of Regions and Center Operations.^[8] In this role, he supported the Deputy Assistant Administrator as second in command, and handled matters pertaining to airport construction, flight operations, emergency response, and infrastructure at nine major regions in the U.S. and the FAA's Aeronautical Center.^[9] Following this role, he served at the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation as Director of Advanced Programs and Innovation.^[10] He provided technical leadership and oversight for the commercial space industry, to include research and development activities to support Department of Transportation and White House National Space Council initiatives. He also led the Office of the Chief Engineer, directing safety review of launch licensing for SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocketlab, Virgin Galactic, and other launch providers providing commercial capabilities and the first space tourism opportunities for the public.^[11]

In 2014, Dr. Chaudhary was appointed by President Obama to serve on his Advisory Commission for The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.^[13] In this capacity he advised the President and Executive Branch on providing economic support, policy advice, and support for veterans in the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community.^[14] Following the election of Joe Biden as the 46th President, in 2022 Dr. Chaudhary was appointed to be Senior Advisor and later Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy. In March of 2023, he was confirmed by the Senate to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Energy, Installations, and the Environment with a bi-partisan vote of 65 to 29.^[15] As Assistant Secretary, he presided over a $15 billion defense infrastructure portfolio at 200 Air Force and Space Force installations. During his tenure, he was recognized for multi-billion-dollar investments restoring base infrastructure, military housing, day care, dormitory upgrades, and mission facilities. He also advocated Department of Defense activities to combat the effects of climate change, and its impact on national security.^[16] In 2024, Dr. Chaudhary launched the "Installation Infrastructure Action Plan,"^[17] which earned praise from both Democrats and Republicans as the largest infrastructure investment in Air Force history. He also led over 100 strategic basing decisions for the Air Force, including the bed down of Space and Cyber Forces, the KC-46, B-21, F-35, F-15, and Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Among his noteworthy achievements, Dr. Chaudhary awarded the nation’s first micro-nuclear reactor program at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.^[18] He also championed award of the leading-edge Blended-Wing Body (BWB) full-scale demonstrator aircraft, recognized as the first effort of its kind in aviation history.^[19] On Jan 20, 2025, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall awarded Chaudhary with the Department of the Air Force Award for Exceptional Civilian Service, the highest award given to a civilian for preeminent accomplishment of assigned duties.

His most notable engineering works included serving as a rocket propulsion and launch engineer for the Delta II program, which delivered the first GPS constellation to full operational capability and setting a World Record for consecutive unmanned launches by a space vehicle.^[20] He also integrated critical avionics systems into Air Force aircraft, including flight testing of congressionally mandated GPS flight management systems following the tragic 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash that killed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.^[21] He also supported damage repair systems for the International Space Station and participated in one of NASA’s “Big Seven” Space Station assembly rehearsals^[22], diving in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at Johnson Space Center, Texas.^[23]