The Honorable Robert F. Behler
Major General (ret) USAF
Robert F. Behler was sworn in as Director of Operational Test and Evaluation on December 11, 2017. A Presidential appointee confirmed by the United States Senate, he served as the senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense and Congress on operational and live fire test and evaluation of Department of Defense weapon systems. In that position he had regular contact with Congressional and industry senior leadership.
Currently he is a member of the Board of Trustees for the National Test Pilot School. Prior to his Presidential Appointment, he was the Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Director of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI), a Federally Funded Research and Development Center. Mr. Behler was the CEO and President of SRC Inc. a not-for-profit research and development corporation. He was also the General Manager and Senior Vice President of the MITRE Corp where he provided leadership to more than 2,500 technical staff in 65 worldwide locations.
He joined MITRE from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory where he was a General Manager for more than 350 scientists and engineers as they made significant contributions to critical Department of Defense (DOD) precision engagement challenges. General Behler served 31 years in the United States Air Force, retiring as a Major General in 2003. As a USAF experimental test pilot, he flew more than 65 aircraft types and operationally flew worldwide reconnaissance missions in the fastest aircraft in the world, the SR-71 Blackbird. Mr. Behler is a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Lifetime member of the Air & Space Force Association.
He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma where he received a B.S. and M.S. in aerospace engineering, has an MBA from Marymount University and was a post graduate National Security Fellow at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University. He has recently been on several National Research Council studies for the National Academy of Sciences and received the 2022 Walter Hollis award for Lifetime Contributions and Achievement in Defense Test and Evaluation from the National Defense Industry Association. He received the Norwegian National Defense Medal, Defense Distinguish Service Medal, The Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, and two Air Medals for sustained aerial combat. He was the first recipient of the Air Force Association General Jerome F. O’Malley for the “Best Reconnaissance Crew in the Air Force.” Mr. Behler was a three-time NASA Astronaut finalist.
