Mr. Steven R. Braddom is the Deputy Chief Airworthiness Engineer for the Systems Readiness Directorate of the U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Center (AvMC). Mr. Braddom is a retired U.S. Army Colonel with over 30 years of government service and has previously served as an Army delegated airworthiness authority for Science & Technology development and Test & Evaluation.
Mr. Braddom's previous military acquisition assignments include Chief of the Cargo, Utility and Fixed-Wing Division for the Aviation Technical Test Center (ATTC), Forward Operational Evaluator for the U.S. Army Test & Evaluation Command (ATEC) in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Chief of the Flight Projects Office for the AvMC Aeroflightdynamics Directorate (AFDD), Product Manager for the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) in the Missile Defense Agency, Director of the AvMC Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), and the Commander of U.S. Army Redstone Test Center (RTC) - the Army’s Developmental Test Center for aircraft, aviation systems, and missiles.
Mr. Braddom has held a variety of operational military assignments in Aviation. As a Company Commander, he served in Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of Stabilization Force (SFOR) Six. He also served in Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 1st Infantry Division Combat Aviation Brigade and Task Force ODIN. His military awards include the Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with five oak leaf clusters, the Air Medal, and the Master Aviator Badge.
Mr. Braddom received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy in 1993, and a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics & Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002. After graduate school, he served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil & Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy. He completed the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in 2005, was selected as the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) U.S. Army Military Tester of the Year in 2009, and was a member of the team awarded the 2010 Vertical Flight Society (VFS) Grover E. Bell award.