WASHINGTON — President Biden has nominated John Plumb to be assistant secretary of defense for space policy, a White House spokesman said July 29.
Plumb currently is the chief of government relations at the Aerospace Corp., a federally funded research and development center focused on national security space programs. He is a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve with expertise in space, missile defense, nuclear deterrence and submarine warfare. Before assuming his current post at Aerospace, Plumb was a senior engineer at RAND Corp.
The assistant secretary of defense for space policy is a new post that Congress established in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
Plumb is the first nominee for the position which has been filled by space policy expert John Hill in an acting role. The nomination will be submitted to the Senate for consideration.
The assistant secretary of defense for space policy provides civilian oversight of the DoD space enterprise, and is responsible for interagency coordination and international engagement on space policy and strategy.
Over the past 25 years Plumb served in various positions at the White House, the Pentagon and the U.S. Senate. He ran for office in 2016 in New York’s 23rd Congressional District.
