Shahab U. Chaudhry

Mr. Shahab Chaudhry serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Platform and Weapon Portfolio Management within the Department of War. In this role, he provides enterprise-level oversight of major defense acquisition programs across air, land, maritime, and advanced weapons systems. He advises senior Department leadership on acquisition strategy, portfolio performance, industrial base resilience, modernization priorities, and resource alignment to ensure delivery of decisive operational capability to the warfighter. He also integrates priorities across the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) process while balancing cost, schedule, performance, and risk across a diverse portfolio of critical national security systems.

Prior to this appointment, Mr. Chaudhry served at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as the Chief of the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) Project Office at Glenn Research Center and as Project Manager for PPE under the Artemis Gateway program. He led a cross-agency team responsible for developing and integrating the Power and Propulsion Element with the Gateway lunar space station. PPE is the most powerful solar electric propulsion spacecraft ever developed and serves as the foundational element enabling sustained human presence in lunar orbit and supporting NASA’s Moon-to-Mars exploration architecture.

Previously, Mr. Chaudhry served at Navy Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) as Research and Development Manager and as Head of Propulsion, Ordnance, and Explosive Safety. He oversaw propulsion and ordnance subsystems supporting the Trident II D5 strategic missile system and served as the Department of Defense’s leading authority on the rocket propulsion industrial base. From 1996 through 2008, he held multiple propulsion leadership positions at SSP Headquarters and at the Program Management Office in Utah, where he led automated manufacturing and continuous improvement initiatives that stabilized cost growth in the U.S. rocket propulsion industry.

Mr. Chaudhry’s awards include the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award (2022); the NASA Project Management Leadership Excellence Award (2024); the NASA Program Management Leadership Excellence Award (2025); and the SSP Director’s Vision Award (2018). He holds the Federal Acquisition Certification for Program and Project Managers (FAC-P/PM) and Department of Defense certifications in Program Management, Test and Evaluation, Life Cycle Logistics, and Systems Planning, Research, Development, and Engineering.

Mr. Chaudhry earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, a Masters in Chemical Engineering from the City University of New York, a Master of Business Administration from American University’s Kogod School of Business, and a graduate certificate in Public Administration from American University’s School of Public Affairs.