Christopher A. Garrett, a Senior Level Executive, is the Technical Advisor, Systems Engineering, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He serves as the recognized Air Force authority for systems engineering for weapon systems lifecycle management charged with providing technical oversight and advice to high level Air Force and government officials. In this role, Mr. Garrett is the lead engineer developing the Air Force Materiel Command strategy for digital transformation.
Mr. Garrett spent over 27 years of active-duty service in the Air Force working in the areas of electronic warfare, test, space, and aircraft sustainment and while on active duty he spent two years at Robins AFB, Georgia, leading the C-17 group. Mr. Garrett finished his career as the Deputy Director for Engineering and Technical Management at AFMC. As Deputy Director, he focused on three areas – System of Systems Analysis, Open Systems Architecture, and Strategic Planning. From September 2015 to February 2020, Mr. Garrett worked in the engineering home office at AFLCMC where he focused on infusing open standards and architectures across Air Force weapon systems.
Mr. Garrett also led an effort to build an Air Force ecosystem where open standards, agile processes and digital engineering could be combined to delivery capability expeditiously to the field. In February 2020, He was appointed Senior Leader for Systems Engineering in the Air Force. In this job, his current focus is to ensure the AFMC Digital Campaign appropriately replicates and expedites the system engineering process.
EDUCATION
1987 Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.
1988 Master of Science, Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
2002 Master of Military Operational Arts and Sciences, Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
CAREER CHRONOLOGY
1. February 1989–September 1994, Systems Engineer, Electronic Warfare Center, Kelly Air Force Base, Texas
2. September 1994–March 1997, Test Program Manager, 413th Flight Test Squadron, Edwards AFB, Calif.
3. March 1997–June 1999, Chief, Operational Analysis, Captain, Test and Evaluation Directorate, the Pentagon, Arlington, Va.
4. June 1999–June 2001, Operations Officer, Major, GPS Test Squadron, Holloman AFB, N.M.
5. June 2002–January 2006, Branch Chief, Lieutenant Colonel, National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly, Va.
6. January 2006–August 2008, Commander, Lieutenant Colonel, Operations Squadron, Australia
7. August 2008–April 2009, Lieutenant Colonel, Special Assistant to the Commander, 330th ASW
8. April 2009–June 2010, Commander, Colonel, 564th Aircraft Sustainment Squadron, Robins AFB, Ga.
9. June 2010–August 2011, Chief, Colonel, Globemaster Division, Robins AFB, Ga.
10. August 2011–June 2014, Deputy Director, Colonel, Engineering Directorate, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
11. June 2014–September 2015, Senior Systems Engineer, Clear Creek Applied Technologies, Ohio
12. September 2015–June 2016, Open Systems Architecture Technical Expert, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
13. June 2016–February 2020, Avionics Architecture Technical Advisor, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
14. February 2020–present, Senior Leader, Technical Advisor, Systems Engineering, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
(Current as of March 2022)