Hon. Philip E. Coyle, III, Senior Advisor

Philip Coyle is a senior advisor to the Center for Defense Information. He is a recognized expert on U.S. and worldwide military research, development and testing, on operational military matters, and on national security policy and defense spending, including defense acquisition reform and defense procurement. Coyle also has extensive background in missile defense, in military space systems, and in high-technology weapons, such as high power lasers and other directed-energy weapons. From his many years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Coyle also has considerable experience in nuclear weapons research, development, and testing, and nuclear weapons effects, including EMP.

From Sept. 29, 1994, through Jan. 20, 2001, Coyle was assistant secretary of defense and director, Operational Test and Evaluation, in the Department of Defense, and is the longest serving director in the 20-year history of the office. In this capacity, he was the principal advisor to the secretary of defense on test and evaluation at DOD.

At DOD, Coyle's responsibilities included stewardship of the Defense Department’s Major Range and Test Facility Bases, including the large test ranges and test centers which DOD operates from Maryland and Florida to California and Hawaii.

Coyle was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the 2005 Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission, and was nominated for this position by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

During the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), Coyle served as the co-chairman of the Defense Department’s Joint Cross-Service Group for Test and Evaluation, with joint cross-service authority for all military bases and test ranges involved in test and evaluation. Beginning in late 2004, Coyle served briefly on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Base Support and Retention Council.

As director, Operational Test and Evaluation, Coyle had responsibility for overseeing the test and evaluation of over 200 major defense acquisition systems. This included reporting to the secretary of defense, and to Congress, on the adequacy of the DOD testing programs, and on the results from those testing programs. Coyle was called upon regularly to testify before Congress and to brief Congressional staff on the status of major defense acquisition programs.

Coyle has 40 years experience in research, development, and testing matters. From 1959 to 1979, and again from 1981 to 1993, Coyle worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. From 1987 to 1993, he served as laboratory associate director and deputy to the laboratory director. In recognition of his 33 years service to the laboratory and to the University of California, the university named Coyle Laboratory Associate Director Emeritus.

Phone: 916.393.2951 | Email: [email protected]