Group Captain Keith Slack MBE MRes MA

Commander Defence Intelligence Training Group UK Strategic Command

Group Captain Slack was born in Cambridge and grew up in Suffolk. He read history at the University of Nottingham from 2000-2003 and joined the RAF in 2005, graduating as the top academic student from Initial Officer Training. Following his first tour as a watchkeeper in the Air Warfare Centre, he was posted to No 8 RAF Force Protection Wing and deployed to Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. He later joined V(AC) Squadron, RAF Waddington, which included an out of area to C2ISR at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan. He was selected to undertake a Chief of the Air Staff Sykes Fellowship and completed a Masters of Arts degree in International Security at King’s College London.

On promotion to Squadron Leader in 2014, he was posted to PJHQ J3 Joint Effects as SO2 Targets as well as fulfilling the appointment of Chief of Staff to coordinate operational output across all Joint Effects disciplines. He later deployed to Kuwait as a senior targeteer in the Combined Joint Task Force HQ in support of Operation SHADER / INHERENT RESOLVE and then undertook an SO2 command tour leading the Full Spectrum Targeting Mission Team at RAF Wyton.

In 2018 he was promoted to Wing Commander and attended Advanced Command and Staff Course 22 at the Defence Academy, placing as overall top student of 240 students. He was selected to take part in the Masters of Research programme sponsored by the Chief of Defence Staff, writing his dissertation on the utility of the information lever of power. An appointment as Station Commander at RAF Wyton was followed by a year as Military Assistant to the Deputy Commander of Strategic Command, after which he was promoted to Group Captain and assumed the role of Chief of Staff in the Defence Safety Authority Headquarters. In 2024 he took command of the Defence Intelligence Training Group at Chicksands.

A father of two energetic kids and a Cocker Spaniel called Willow, he enjoys martial arts, most team sports, rambling in the Lincolnshire countryside and reading.