Former Indian American Air Force Officer Ravi Chaudhary Nominated For Key Pentagon Position

The former Indian American Air Force officer Ravi Chaudhary has been nominated for a key Pentagon position by the Joe Biden administration.

A former Indian American Air Force officer has been nominated for the position of assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, energy, and the environment, by US President Joe Biden, on Thursday, October 14.

Ravi Chaudhary, previously served as a senior executive at the US department of transportation where he was director of advanced programs and innovation, office of commercial space, at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

If confirmed by the Senate, his primary responsibility will be to execute advanced development and research programs in support of the FAA’s commercial space transportation mission.

During his tenure at the transportation department, he held key positions in the integration and support of aviation operations in nine regions located nationwide.

The White House said that, Chaudry has been on active duty from 1993 to 2015 in the US Air Force, and has completed a variety of operational, engineering, and senior staff assignments in the Air Force.

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 personnel recovery center at the multi-national corps in Iraq.

As a flight test engineer, he was responsible for flight certification of military avionics and hardware for Air Force modernization programs supporting flight safety and mishap prevention. Earlier in his career, he supported space launch operations for the Global Positioning System (GPS) and led third stage and flight safety activities to ensure the full operational capability of the first GPS constellation, the White House said.

As a systems engineer, he supported Nasa’s International Space Station (ISS) protection 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 veterans’ support for the AAPI community.

Chaudhary holds a doctorate specializing in executive leadership and innovation from the Georgetown University DLS Program, an MS in industrial engineering from St Mary’s University as a Nasa graduate fellow, an MA in operational arts and military science from Air University, and a BS in aeronautical engineering from the US Air Force Academy.

He is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute and holds department of defense acquisition certifications in program management, test and evaluation, and systems engineering.