— Air Force Secretary Troy Meink likened today’s geopolitical threats to the Sputnik shock of 1957, warning that the United States risks falling behind adversaries, particularly China, unless it accelerates innovation across air and space programs. Just as Sputnik was a wake-up call that spurred American innovation, today’s threats require similar focus, Meink said Sept. 22 during a keynote speech at the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual conference outside Washington. Meink, the Department of the Air Force’s top civilian overseeing both the Air Force and the Space Force, said he is increasingly worried about the services’ pace of innovation. “Going forward, we can’t lose that high ground.”Meink’s broader concern spans both the Air Force and the Space Force: the gap between cutting-edge technology development and the ability to produce capabilities at the scale needed to compete with China. Without that kind of production momentum, he warned, the United States risks ceding hard-won advantages in the air and in orbit.