Donald W. Thompson, Jr., is the Director, F-35 Directorate, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He is responsible for organizing, training, and equipping the F-35 Joint Program Office’s Air Force workforce to enable the development, delivery, and sustainment of all airborne, surface, and ground-based assets, and advanced capabilities for the U.S and international partners.
Prior to his current assignment, Donald Thompson was the Deputy, Air Force Program Executive Officer for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft Directorate, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He was responsible for the development, production, fielding, sustainment, and modernization of the Air Force fighter portfolio, which includes the A-10, A-29, F-15, F-16, F-22, and special programs; as well as the development of the Next Generation Air Dominance program and other advanced aircraft capability development activities, to include the Skyborg Vanguard program.
He has also served as the Deputy, Air Force Program Executive Officer for Tankers and Deputy Director for the Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate to which he assisted the Director in managing foreign military sales programs with totals exceeding $138.3 billion supporting more than 102 foreign countries. As AFMC’s center of excellence for international affairs, his responsibilities also included managing the command’s international cooperative programs and its foreign disclosure policy. Mr. Thompson also served as Chair for the Miami Valley Combined Federal Campaign. In this capacity he exercised executive management of a regional charity drive that encompassed 75 federal organizations in eleven counties in Southwest Ohio that realized total contributions of over $2.1 million in 2013.