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Richard Knighton

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Service/branch
  
Royal Air Force

Name
  
Richard Knighton

Years of service
  
1984 - present

Battles and wars
  
Kosovo War


Commands held
  
RAF Wittering

Allegiance
  
United Kingdom

Battles/wars
  
Kosovo War

Rank
  
Air vice-marshal

Richard Knighton AVM Richard Knighton richardknighton Twitter

Air Vice Marshal Richard John Knighton, (born 1969) is a senior Royal Air Force officer and engineer. Since January 2017, he has served as Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Capability & Force Design).

Contents

Early life

Knighton was educated at Hatton Secondary School. As a University Cadet sponsored by the Royal Air force, he studied engineering at Clare College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1991 with a first class Bachelor of Arts degree; as per tradition, this was later promoted to a Master of Arts degree.

Military career

Knighton joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1988. In his early career, he served as an engineer officer and worked on Nimrod and Tornado F3 aircraft. He saw active service in the Kosovo War. In 2006, he was appointed military assistant to the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Equipment Capability). He then served as Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff Strategy and Plans at Air Command in 2007. From 2009 to 2011, he served as Station Commander of RAF Wittering.

In May 2011, Knighton was appointed Director of Air Plans at the Ministry of Defence. Since January 2015, he has served as the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff. As such, he is a member of the Air Force Board and also sits on the board of the Civil Aviation Authority as a non-executive member. In July 2016 it was announced that he would become Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Capability & Force Design) with effect from January 2017.

Honours

In the 2017 New Year Honours, Knighton was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB).

References

Richard Knighton Wikipedia