Stephen Dalton

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton was appointed the chief of the Air Staff in July 2009.

Sir Dalton left the Crown Service and his role as chief in January 2014.

Life beyond the Crown Service

In January 2015 Sir Dalton received approval from ACOBA to found an independent consultancy providing part-time strategic advice to commercial organisations. He was permitted to accept commissions from PA Consulting and Textron. Textron is an American global aerospace, defense, security and advanced technologies industrial conglomerate, that makes Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Beechcraft, and other components.

The roles were approved on the following conditions;

• 'Sir Stephen should not draw on privileged information available to him from his time in Government; and
• For two years from his last day in service, Sir Stephen should not become personally involved in lobbying the UK Government on behalf of his new employer, its parent company or its clients.'

On Information Operations

In an address to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in February 2009, Dalton highlighted Israel's use of social media during the 2009 Gaza conflict:

Accurate and timely information has always been critical to the military, but its importance is increasing as societies become more networked. This is intimately linked to developments in space and cyber-space; as we saw in the conflict in Gaza in early-2009, operations on the ground were paralleled by operations in cyber-space and an info ops campaign that was fought across the internet: the Israeli Air Force downloaded sensor imagery onto 'youtube', ‘tweets’ warned of rocket attacks and the ‘help-us-win.com’ blog was used to mobilise public support. The exponential growth in the availability of information means that we must understand how to deliver and protect our national interests in the cyber domain, and although this is clearly a cross- government issue, Defence has a legitimate interest in the development of offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. This requires a cadre of people who can understand and manage the modern networked environment, and are comfortable with the concept of information as a capability in its own right.