Colonel Dustin Thomas

Colonel Dustin Thomas is the Commander, Defense Contract Management Agency Special Programs Unmanned Systems-Experimental (US-X), in Palmdale, California. There, he leads DCMA’s pathfinder for agile oversight of unmanned and autonomous systems, helping the agency adapt to software-defined weapons systems, modular platforms, and advance manufacturing through faster processes, tighter customer alignment, and specialized expertise in emerging technologies.

A career engineer, tester, and strategist, Colonel Thomas has served at the intersection of advanced technology, operational need, and institutional change. He previously commanded DCMA Palmdale and the 425th Air Base Squadron in Izmir, Turkey, and has led efforts spanning advanced aircraft technologies, strategic innovation, and rapidly fielded unmanned systems.

Prior to his current assignment, Colonel Thomas served as a Blue Horizons Fellow at the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s Center for Strategy and Technology, where he helped lead an innovation effort focused on rapidly designing, building, and flying small unmanned aircraft systems for combat. He also served in the Pentagon as the Program Element Monitor for Advanced Aircraft Survivability, directing a $2 billion joint advanced aircraft technologies portfolio and overseeing planning, programming, budgeting, security, and technology transition for priority Air Force, Space Force, and Navy capabilities.

Colonel Thomas was commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Kansas State University in 2002. His career has included assignments in engineering, test, intelligence, acquisition, and operational support.