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In another first, Indian American Ravi Chaudhary was confirmed to be appointed as the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Energy, Installations, and the Environment, the first Indian American to serve in this position. Chaudhary won the mandate with a vote of 65-29, making him one of the top civilian leaders in the Pentagon. He received more than a dozen votes from the opposition Republican party.
Chaudhary has an illustrious flying career behind him as he served on active duty as Air Force pilot for over 2 decades, between 1993 and 2015. He was responsible for several combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq during this time. Chaudhary served as a senior official at the Federal Aviation Administration for 5 years in different commanding positions. He was also appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
In this role, Chaudhary will be responsible for the Air Force’s sustainability and operational readiness. This includes developing installations and basing strategies, as well as ensuring the quality of military housing. Chaudhary has also 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).
During his service in the US Air Force from 1993 to 2015, Chaudhary completed a variety of operational, engineering, and senior staff assignments.
As a flight test engineer, he was responsible for flight certification of military avionics and hardware for the force’s modernization programs supporting flight safety. Earlier in his career, he supported space launch operations for the global positioning system (GPS) and led third-stage flight safety activities to ensure the full operational capability of the first GPS constellation.
A graduate of the Federal Executive Institute, 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.
