Robert F. Behler

Robert Behler, AKA Lorenzo, is a featured character in the latest Tom Clancy novel Weapon Grade. In the novel Lorenzo is a real SR-71 pilot that flies the Blackbird as a safety chase aircraft for a hypersonic weapons platform. Spoiler alert, Lorenzo and Jack Ryan Jr save the world from Armageddon. Weapons Grade is an inspirational story about what the future holds for advanced technology like hypersonic and cypersecurity.

Most recent Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, Office of the Secretary of Defense, The Hon. Robert F. Behler, Major Gen, USAF (ret) was sworn in as Director of Operational Test and Evaluation on December 11, 2017.

As Presidential appointee confirmed by the United States Senate, he serves 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. Prior to his 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. Behler was 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.

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. Behler is a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma where he received a B.S. and M.S. in aerospace engineering, has a 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 and The Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

Behler was recently the featured speaker on a Hermeus YouTube presentation on his experiences flying the Mach 3+ SR-71 Blackbird. Hermeus is a startup company with the ambition of developing a Hypersonic aircraft. In March 2023 he was also the Keynote Speaker at the University Consortium on Applied Hypersonic at the Texas A&M. He was also the host commentator for an acclaimed NOVA special on unmanned aerial vehicles entitled "Spies That Flight." Many of Behler's speeches are motivational inspiring America's greatness in innovation and creativity.