Jean-François Ripoche

Jean-François Ripoche is the Director Research, Technology and Innovation (RTI) at the European Defence Agency. Before, he was the Research and Technology Director at the Strategy Directorate, of DGA, the French MoD Procurement Agency.

He began his career at DGA in 1998 at the Tactical Missile Program Service as an engineer in charge of R&T for missile optronic equipments. He then became responsible for the Polyphem fiber optic missile demonstrator program in cooperation with Germany and Italy. In 2001, he took charge of the tactical UAVs program office where he managed several programs and armament operations for the benefit of the French Army.

In 2005, he was appointed head of the R&T office of the weapons systems directorate and the same year, to the budget directorate as head of the office in charge of the operational budget for Helicopter, Land System, Missile and UAV programs.

Jean François Ripoche joined the strategy directorate in 2008, where he first held the position of Deputy Director for Industrial Affairs in charge of the electronics, land systems and naval systems industries. In 2012, he became head of capability development for C4ISTAR, where he notably participated in the launch of the CERES (SIGINT satellites), GEODE 4D (information system for geographical and weather data of the forces) and DESCARTES (infrastructure communication network) programs as well as the establishment of the Cybersecurity capabilities master plan.