Advisory Committee
VADM Lyle Bien USN (Ret.)
Former Deputy Commander-in-Chief
U.S. Space Command
Lyle G. Bien, a native of South Dakota, is currently a defense industry consultant. He is a 1967 graduate of Augustana College with a degree in Biology, and the National War College in 1992.
A Naval Flight Officer, he served aboard multiple aircraft carriers over 11 major deployments to the Pacific flying the F-4 Phantom and the F-14 Tomcat. He is a graduate of and former instructor at the Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN).
He commanded an F-14 Fighter Squadron, 2 Carrier Airwings, a Carrier Battle Group and the Naval Space Command, Dahlgren, VA. From October 1990 to March 1991 he was the senior Navy striker planner for Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM. He was in command of the Nimitz Battle Group throughout her response to the Taiwan Missile Crisis in 1996.
He served on the Joint Staff, and was the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, United States Space Command, where he chaired the Senior Warfighter Forum (SWarF) that rendered the design that became the Wideband Gapfiller satellite program.
He has 5,500 flight hours in Navy fighter aircraft, 1300 carrier landings, and 225 combat missions. He is an Augustana College Distinguished Alumnus (1995) and was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 1997. He is a member of the Augustana College Board of Regents.
Admiral Bien was with Teledesic LLC from March 1999 to October 2002 where he was responsible for all matters involving the Government customer, including incorporating DoD requirements into the Teledesic and ICO satellite system designs, and products and services.
Admiral Bien has been a member of the MDA Graybeard Panel on National Missile Defense since its inception. He serves in a senior leadership position at all service Title X Wargames, Schriever Series Space Wargames, as well as the MDA Wargames and Simulations at the Joint National Integration Center at Schriever AFB. He works extensively on the related issues of Space-based Communications, C4ISR, and Global Missile Defense to include senior mentoring in these areas at several Combatant Commands and with Industrial Partners. He is a member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, National Security Space Architect Board where he worked on the Transformational Communications Architecture (TCA), and the U.S. Naval Space Panel on FORCEnet and naval space and communications.
Admiral Bien is currently a consultant in the related fields of Space and Communications. He and his wife of 32 years, Cathy, live on their cattle ranch in South Dakota, and in Encinitas, California when the temperature drops below zero.
