On a 52 to 46 party line vote on Thursday, the GOP-controlled Senate confirmed Matthew Lohmeier as the 29th Undersecretary of the U.S. Air Force–the service’s number two civilian.
Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) did not vote.
In written answers to Senate Armed Services Committee questions before his nomination hearing on May 1, he said that nuclear modernization, including the Northrop Grumman [NOC] LGM-35A Sentinel future ICBM, and space resilience would be the top Department of the Air Force challenges that he would address (Defense Daily, May 2).
In May 2021, then Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting–now the four-star head of U.S. Space Command–fired then Lt. Col. Lohmeier as the commander of the 11th Space Warning Squadron at Buckley Space Force Base, Colo., after Lohmeier aired his views opposing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives during a conservative podcast.
Before his time in the the Space Force, Lohmeier served as an Air Force F-15C pilot.
“While I appreciate his past military service, his record of troubling conduct in uniform, extreme
partisanship, and animosity toward military members with whom he disagrees politically is, in my view, completely disqualifying to be Under Secretary [of the Air Force],” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a Senate floor speech on Wednesday. “After leaving the Space Force, he has continued to write and speak about his
extreme beliefs.
Among his controversial statements, Mr. Lohmeier called the January 6 attack a government-led ‘false flag and hoax at the Capitol.’
