
Dr. David Galligan
New Zealand Defence Force
Dr David Galligan holds a PhD from the University of Canterbury (New Zealand) in planetary space
physics, which was awarded in 2000. Following this award Dr Galligan worked as a post-doctoral
fellow in partnership with Max Planck Institute and European Space Operations Centre scientists. His
research focussed on the collection and analysis of very large astronomical data sets in order to
characterise the interplanetary meteoroid cloud, to better understand the orbital dynamics and
structure of the near-Earth comet and asteroid population. This work contributed to the prediction
and mitigation of the risk to near-Earth satellites from meteoroid impact.
Dr Galligan was appointed as an Operations Analyst at New Zealand's Defence Technology Agency
(DTA) in 2002. In subsequent years he led analytic efforts of significance, including studies in support
of the P3K2 Orion aircraft upgrade; light and medium utility helicopter requirements; and
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance requirements for land forces. He played a leading role
in ground-breaking work on Network Centric Warfare, for which he received a TTCP achievement
award in 2005. During this time he also provided analytic leadership for a range of Army and Defence
experimentation activities, and he was the lead architect and developer for New Zealand's MANA
agent-based modelling tool.
In 2007 Dr Galligan was promoted to the position of Research Leader in Operations Analysis. He
continues to hold this position, which entails direct leadership of DTA's Military Operations Analysis
team and also leadership across a range of cross-lab and wider defence activities. His team leads
efforts in areas covering strategic planning support, horizon scanning and technology foresight,
concept development, acquisitions and operations; across all warfare domains. Given this scope Dr
Galligan plans the team's analytic direction in close consultation with military stakeholders in order
to ensure that DTA's relatively austere analytic capability is being best and most correctly applied.
In recent years Dr Galligan's personal achievements have included a TTCP award for the analysis of
Counter-IED systems; scientific leadership of major acquisitions such as the ANZAC Frigate Systems
Upgrade; and scientific and analytic methodology leadership for Defence assessments and reviews.
In recognition of his international standing Dr Galligan was invited to form part of an international
benchmarking team for the review of DST Group's Land Combat Analysis capability in 2016.
From late September 2018 Dr Galligan will be taking on an additional new role as Executive Chair of
the TTCP Land Systems Group (TTCP LND). Simultaneously, he will also take on a one-year role as
Chair of the Executive Chairs' College of TTCP.
Dr Galligan is married with two teenage children and he enjoys gardening, DIY and learning
languages.
Sessions
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04-Mar-2025KALAKAUA BALLROOMOceania Panel