Lt General James Hockenhull

Lt General Hockenhull was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1986. His early postings were as a platoon commander with KORBR in Northern Ireland and in intelligence appointments in the UK, Cyprus and Berlin.  Between 1991 and 2003 he served for eight years on operations over three tours in Joint Support Group (Northern Ireland) as Detachment and then Company Commander and finally as Commanding Officer. These tours were separated by attendance at the last Army Command and Staff College course and a tour in the Ministry of Defence as SO2 Long Term Plans in Army Resources and Plans.  He was posted in 2003 as the British Exchange Instructor at the United States Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas; this tour included 6 months teaching at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. In December 2005 he deployed to Headquarters Multi-National Force Iraq (HQ MNF-I) as Chief Campaign Plans and wrote the 2006 HQ MNF-I Campaign Plan and Campaign Assessment.  Returning to the Ministry of Defence as Deputy Director Force Development in August 2006 he was responsible for tri-service future force structure planning.  On completion of the Higher Command and Staff Course in early 2008 he was Chief Plans HQ ARRC and subsequently deployed to Afghanistan. In 2009 he promoted to Brigadier and assumed the appointment of Director ISTAR at Headquarters Land Forces, which later developed into Head Information Superiority. In September 2011 he returned to the Ministry of Defence as Head Military Strategic Planning and in June 2012 he promoted to Major General and deployed to Kabul as Director of the Ministry of Defence Advisory Group. After a 3-month spell in late-2014 as Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence (covering this gaped civilian 2 Star billet as incumbents changed over) he took up post as Director Cyber, Intelligence and Information Integration (DCI3) in March 2015. In 2018 he was promoted to Lt General and Chief of Defence Intelligence, UK MoD. Honours and awards from his operational tours include the MBE, QCVS, OBE and the Bronze Star.