Stephen Dalton

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

Dalton retired from his role in January 2014 and a year later starting working with companies in the defence sector.

In January 2017, he was appointed Jersey's next Lieutenant Governor by the Queen for a five-year-term.

Life after the military

In January 2015 the ex-RAF-chief received approval from ACOBA to found an independent consultancy providing part-time strategic advice to commercial organisations. Dalton was permitted to accept commissions from PA Consulting and Textron. Textron is an American global aerospace, defence, security and advanced technologies industrial conglomerate, that makes Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Beechcraft, and other components. It has a Southhampton-based subsidiary Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK Limited in the UK.

Daltons proposed 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.'

Dalton has been free from the anti-lobbying rule since 2017.

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 cyberspace; 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.

External resources

• Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Stephen Dalton: Meetings, Political Influence Database