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Blythe Crawford CBE

Air and Space Warfare Centre, Royal Air Force

Commandant

Air Commodore Crawford is the Commandant of the Air and Space Warfare Centre. He completed tours on 111(F) and XXV(F) Squadrons, and the Tornado F3 Operational Conversion Unit, before promotion to Squadron Leader, where he was posted to the Tactical Leadership Programme, while completing a Masters at Cambridge University before returning to the F3 as a Flight Commander.


He completed Advanced Command and Staff College and an MA in Defence Studies, prior to posting to a strategy role in the Pentagon. He returned to the UK as OC Ops Wing at RAF Leuchars, before deploying as XO to the Commanding General, 1st Infantry Division, in Baghdad on OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE. Crawford was awarded an OBE in 2015.


Within Joint Forces Command, he led the rollout of ‘Warfare in the Information Age’ and then returned to Washington as the interoperability lead for the Multi Domain Command and Control enterprise, before participating in the development of the USAF’s innovation strategy.


Appointed Station Commander, RAF Leeming, he drove multiple transformation programmes including setting up the RAFX Innovation Hub. He was awarded a CBE in 2021 before attending Higher Command and Staff College. He is currently completing a Doctorate in Innovation, Technology and Strategy at Durham University, where he is also a Professor in Practice.

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