Colonel Derrick R. Franck is the Chief of the Strategic Analysis and Experimentation Division of the Headquarters North American Aerospace Defense and United States Northern Commands’ Requirements, Analysis and Resources Directorate (J8). His division leads the commands’ analytical agenda, supporting operations and plans with rapid and long-term quantitative and qualitative analyses. His team also provides modeling and simulation-based analyses to planning, operations and resourcing efforts. Additionally, he leads experimentation to develop mission capabilities used to frame planning and resourcing efforts.

Col Franck earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics and his commission as a distinguished graduate from the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado, in 2002. He is a command pilot with more than 2,100 hours in F-16, T-38, and T-37 aircraft, to include more than 170 combat hours. He was a graduate and instructor at the U.S. Air Force’s Weapon School and attended both the College of Naval Command and Staff and Army War College.

Prior to his current assignment, he served as Executive Officer to the Director of Operations (J3) and Missile and Space Domain Chief for US Northern Command. He commanded the 79th Fighter Squadron, Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, where he was responsible for maintaining combat deployment readiness and employing combat-ready F-16CM Block-50 pilots and aircraft in support worldwide operational requirements.