Air Vice Marshall (ret’d) Chris Deeble has officially assumed the role of Chief Executive of Northrop Grumman Australia, taking over from acting chief executive Warren King on April 2.
“I was delighted to welcome AVM Chris Deeble to Northrop Grumman Australia and to hand over responsibility for the Chief Executive role to him,” King said in an April 3 LinkedIn post. “Chris is a well-known and experienced Defence executive and is a great addition to the Northrop Grumman team in Australia. I wish Chris all the very best in driving Northrop Grumman Australia to even greater success.”
Deeble was announced as the new Chief Executive in February. He comes to Northrop Grumman most recently from Air Services Australia where he headed up the OneSKY integrated air traffic control program. Before that, he had a distinguished 37-year military career, initially as a navigator on Canberra and F-111C strike aircraft.
Deeble later headed up the troubled AIR 5077 Wedgetail AEW&C program, and is generally credited with getting that program back on track in conjunction with his Boeing counterpart, Boeing Australia president Maureen Doherty.
He also led Australia’s AIR 6000 New Air Combat Capability (JSF) program office, the AIR 5402 KC-30 MRTT project, and the Collins class submarine sustainment program.
King, a former head of the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) and a member of Northrop Grumman’s International Advisory Board, had been acting in the role following former Chief Executive Ian Irving’s departure from the company last October. Irving is now Managing Director of Sydney-based ALTILUS Pty Ltd, and is a board member of the Sir Richard Williams Foundation.