Trump taps hypersonics expert to oversee Pentagon’s S&T portfolio
President Donald Trump has picked Joseph Jewell to be the next assistant secretary of defense for science and technology.
Jewell’s nomination was sent to Capitol Hill Monday and will be considered by the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to a notice posted on Congress.gov.
An experienced aerospace engineer, Jewell has spent decades in both academia and government working on hypersonics research and development. He most recently served as an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University, where he was the director of the school’s Mach 6 quiet wind tunnel that’s able to test hypersonic capabilities. Jewell also spent two years researching hypersonics technology at the Air Force Research Laboratory, according to his LinkedIn bio.
The S&T job at the Pentagon that Jewell has been tapped for, was one of the new roles established in the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act as part of a reorganization within the department’s research and engineering directorate. Aprille Ericsson held that position during the Biden administration.
If confirmed, Jewell would be tasked to oversee the Defense Department’s extensive S&T enterprise — including emerging technologies, workforce, laboratories, and partnerships with industry and academia. Key initiatives for the office include FutureG, quantum science, advanced manufacturing and hypersonics research, among others.
Jewell’s experience with hypersonics would be helpful for the DOD. Development of the advanced weapons — able to fly at speeds of Mach 5 or greater while maneuvering through the atmosphere — has been a top priority for the department. However, several ongoing programs have struggled in recent years, largely due to limited test infrastructure and the technology’s complexity.
Since taking office for his second term in January, Trump has taken interest in bolstering the United States’ homeland missile defense via his Golden Dome effort, formerly known as the “Iron Dome For America.” The project looks to build a multi-layered architecture that can effectively track and defeat a range of threats, including hypersonic systems. To that end, the Pentagon will need kinetic and non-kinetic mechanisms — as well as infrastructure to test and validate them — to intercept adversary weapons.
The assistant secretary of defense for S&T is nested under the Pentagon’s undersecretary for research and engineering. Trump’s nominee for that position is Emil Michael, former chief business officer at Uber, who is awaiting confirmation by the Senate.
