From the RAF Website:
Rich Knighton was brought up in Derbyshire and educated at the local Secondary School. He joined the RAF in 1988 as a University Cadet and studied Engineering at Clare College Cambridge. He spent his early career working as an engineer officer on Nimrod and Tornado F3 aircraft and several tours on the Harrier force including being Senior Engineer Officer on 20 Squadron – the Harrier Operational Conversion Unit – at RAF Wittering. After 2 years in this role, including a short stint as Senior Engineer Officer on 1 Squadron in Italy during the Kosovo campaign, he was posted to the Tornado Integrated Project Team as the fleet manager for all marks of Tornado. He attended Advanced Command and Staff Course in 2003/4 before returning to the Harrier Force, this time as head of the team charged with transforming the way the Harrier was supported by industry. After 18 months in post he was selected to be the Military Assistant to Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Equipment Capability) in MOD. He was promoted to Group Captain in mid-2007 when he became Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff Strategy and Plans at Air Command at RAF High Wycombe. He attended the Royal College of Defence Studies in 2009, after which he took up his appointment as the RAF’s Logistics Force Commander and Station Commander at RAF Wittering.
In 2011 he was promoted to Air Commodore and became Head of Finance and Military Capability (Air) in the MOD before setting up and leading the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) Programme in 2014. In January 2015 he was promoted to Air Vice-Marshal and appointed as the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff. In this role he oversaw the development of the RAF’s strategy and the planning for the RAF’s Centenary celebrations. He became Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Capability and Force Design) in 2017.
He held this role for a little under two years before he was promoted to Air Marshal and appointed as Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Military Capability). He was appointed to his current role as Deputy Commander for Capability and People in May 2022.
That is an impressive CV - he went to OxBridge the hard way, he has experience of ISTAR, AD and OS aircraft on FL Sqns as a JEngO and SEngO, he has an excellent pedigree in recent capability development (including Tempest), he is well respected in MOD having served a variety of tri-Service facing tours. I also hear he is a current keen private flyer (probably in current flying practice more than many above 1 star are), so whilst he hasn’t flown professionally, he certainly knows a bit about flying, a lot about engineering, a lot about how to manage people and he knows how the MOD, it’s finances and policy, all works. He was the first non-Aircrew ACAS and in my opinion he was excellent. To be honest, I can’t imagine anyone currently at that level better qualified to take the job on and fix stuff.
Anyway, it’s time for the top end to change and regenerate, and hopefully we won’t have to wait long to find out who will be running the show. Sometime late May or June 2023 is the top rumour (this is a rumour network, right?).