Desmond Balmforth FREng

Director of Engineering and Project Management, Leonardo

Des Balmforth is a chartered mechanical engineer with significant multidiscipline experience across manufacturing, engineering, project management and procurement.

Des is currently Director of Engineering and Project Management at Leonardo and has held several senior leadership roles in business delivery and functional governance. Des led the engineering team that developed the first E-scan fire control radar outside of the US, winning the Raven Radar development and production programme, leading to growth in high-value engineering jobs in the UK.

As Vice President of Airborne Radar, he led an international collaboration with Italy on the development of a lightweight E-scan fire control radar, adding E-scan surveillance radar development to his responsibilities. This included an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability to customers across the world, including the US Coastguard, US Navy and Norwegian Search and Rescue.