Air Marshal Philip Colin Osborn, is a senior

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

officer who served as Chief of Defence Intelligence from 2015 to 2018.

RAF career

Osborn joined the

in 1982. After training as a

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

navigator, he became commanding officer of No. 13 Squadron and then Station Commander at RAF Marham. He went on to be Air Officer Commanding

No. 2 Group No. 2 Group is a Group (military aviation unit)#United Kingdom, group of the Royal Air Force which was first activated in 1918, served from 1918–20, from 1936 through the Second World War to 1947, from 1948 to 1958, from 1993 to 1996, was react ...

in October 2010, Chief of Staff Operations and Support at

RAF Air Command Air Command is the only Command currently active in the Royal Air Force. It was formed by the merger of Royal Air Force Strike and Personnel and Training commands on 1 April 2007, and has its headquarters at RAF High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. ...

in 2012 and Director Capability at

Joint Forces Command The United Kingdom's Strategic Command (StratCom), previously known as Joint Forces Command (JFC), manages allocated joint capabilities from the three armed services. History Background In August 2010 the then Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, a ...

in 2013. He became Chief of Defence Intelligence in January 2015. Osborn was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

in the

2009 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2009 were announced on 31 December 2008 in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Christopher and Nevis,Saint Christopher. to ...

. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS). Osborn officially retired from the Royal Air Force on 13 October 2019.

Later life

In retirement, Osborn maintained links with the Royal Air Force and became chairman of the RAF Charitable Trust in June 2020, and became a non-executive director for Lincolnshire-based defence company, Inzpire, in April 2020.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Osborn, Philip Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Living people Royal Air Force air marshals Royal Air Force personnel of the Iraq War Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society