Dr. Erich Hernandez-Baquero is the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration and the Space Service Acquisition Executive, the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia. Dr. Hernandez-Baquero oversees the acquisition of the nation’s space warfighting capabilities. In this role, he leads the Department of the Air Force space acquisition enterprise and is responsible for all architecture and integration with respect to acquisition of space systems and programs in the armed forces. He also chairs the Space Acquisition Council and oversees and directs the space acquisition centers in the DAF.
Dr. Hernandez-Baquero leverages many years of government and commercial industry experience developing systems for critical United States space missions, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; electro-optical; imagery; sensors; and software.
Throughout his career, Dr. Hernandez-Baquero served in several key leadership roles. Prior to his current position, he was the Vice President of Space Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance at Raytheon, an RTX business. He led the development and sustainment of command and control, communications, and data processing systems for surveillance and reconnaissance missions from space in support of the intelligence community and Department of War. Prior to this role, Hernandez-Baquero was the Director of Advanced Ground Systems in Department 22, Raytheon Intelligence and Space, where he led the development of mission solutions for multidomain operations, leveraging advancements in autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, tracking, fusion, modeling and simulation, modern software and distributed architectures.
Prior to joining Raytheon Intelligence and Space, Dr. Hernandez-Baquero served as the Senior Materiel Leader of the Integrated Ground Enterprise at the National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly, Va., where he led a wing-level joint organization life cycle acquisition of command and control and data processing systems supporting vital missions for the DoW and intelligence community.
Dr. Hernandez-Baquero served in a variety of acquisition programs for the United States Air Force over his 28-year career, including test and evaluation at the Air Force Research Laboratory Propulsion Directorate at Edwards Air Force Base, California, research and technology projects at the NRO, and advanced space programs that enabled new intelligence collection capabilities. Dr. Hernandez-Baquero was also a regional affairs specialist and served as advisor to the Inter-American Defense Board of the Organization of American States.
EDUCATION
1994 Bachelor of Science, Physics, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.
2000 Doctor of Philosophy, Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, N.Y.
2001 Squadron Office School, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
2008 Spanish Joint Command and Staff College, Madrid, Spain
2012 Master of Science, National Resource Strategy, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C.
CAREER CHRONOLOGY
1. 1994–1997, Chief, Technical Development Branch, Propulsion Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif
2. 1997–2000, Student, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, N.Y.
3. 2000–2002, Chief, Architecture Division, IMINT Research and Technology, Chantilly, Va.
4. 2002–2007, Chief, Satellite Payload Engineering and Integration, Chantilly, Va.
5. 2007–2008, Student, Spanish Joint Command and Staff College, Madrid, Spain
6. 2008–2011, Advisor, Inter-American Defense Board, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C.
7. 2011–2012, Student, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C.
8. 2012–2013, Chief, Payload Division, IMINT, Chantilly, Va.
9. 2013–2017, Deputy Director, IMINT, System Program Office, Chantilly, Va.
10. 2015–2017, Senior Materiel Leader, Electro-Optical Systems, IMINT, Chantilly, Va.
11. 2017–2021, Senior Materiel Leader, National Reconnaissance Office Integrated Enterprise, GED, Chantilly, Va.
12. August 2026–present, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration and the Space Service Acquisition Executive, the Pentagon, Arlington, Va.
(Current as of September 2026)