Geert DEGRAEN
Colonel (GS), MSc Eng
Director of the departement Scientific and Technological Research of Defence
Biography
Geert Degraen was born in Bilzen on 20 January 1970.
In 1985, he entered the Royal Cadet School in Lier and, in 1988, he was admitted to the 143rd polytechnic class of the Royal Military School in Brussels. After his studies, he started as commander of the Material and Vehicle Maintenance platoon at the 97th Logistics Battalion in Olen. Later, he transferred to the 230th Material Company in Grobbendonk where he was firstly commander of the Material Maintenance platoon and then technical officer. During this period, he participated in a foreign mission for the first time: BELUGA 4, in Bosnia.
In May 1999, he was posted to the staff of the Logistics Support division as equipment manager of the land force wheeled vehicles. In 2002, he transferred to the 99th Logistics Battalion to participate in BELUROKOS 9 in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. After completing his Candidate Senior Officer Course, he joined the Competence Centre Vehicles and Armament (CC R&A) in Rocourt as head of the Expertise office, where he was responsible for the configuration management of the Defence vehicles, as well as for executing technical studies and developing prototypes for various vehicles. During this period, he participated in various assessment commissions for the acquisition of new vehicles (commercial vehicles, 8T trucks, ALC container trucks and LMV command vehicles, among others).
With this experience, at the beginning of 2005, he joined the Land Systems section of the Systems division of the Directorate General Material Resources in Evere as project officer for the AIV (Armoured Infantry Vehicle). After finalising this purchase, he became the Piranha vehicle manager.
During the academic year 2008-2009, he attended the Higher Staff Course at the Royal Higher Institute for Defence in Brussels and then returned to the CC R&A where he successively held the position of company commander of the Technical Staff and director of the Technical department. He is in charge of planning and managing the different business units of the Technical department, which ensure the industrial level control and maintenance of armaments, ammunition, optics and vehicles, as well as the development of various prototypes and their mass production.
In August 2015, his career – until then mainly dedicated to vehicles – took a turn when he transferred to the Individual Support Systems sub-section of the Support Systems section of the Systems division of the Directorate General Material Resources.
At the beginning of 2019, he became Head of the Support Systems section of the Systems division of the Directorate General Material Resources for a few months. As of May 2019, he took up the position of CC R&A director.
In December 2022, he was appointed Director of the Department Scientific and Technological Research of Defence at the Royal Higher Institute for Defence.
In 2001, he married Nancy Vansteenhuyse (1969 – †2018) and is now the proud (step)father of two sons, Nico (1994) and Jarno (2002).