NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — 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. The analogy to Sputnik — a Soviet satellite that orbited Earth every 96 minutes and shook U.S. confidence in its technolo

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