Jean-Paul Paloméros

Jean-Paul Paloméros is a General in the French Air Force and the current Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, a senior military post in NATO. Paloméros previously served as Chief of Staff of the French Air Force from 2009 to 2012.

Air force career
In 1973, he joined l'École de l'Air, the French Air Force Academy. He acquired extensive experience both as an operational commander and as a fighter pilot, having flown 82 combat missions and more than 3,500 flying hours, mostly on Mirage F1C and Mirage 2000 aircraft. He led the 2/12 Picardy Squadron in Cambrai for the 1987 Epervier operational deployment in Chad and in 1990 the 30th Fighter Wing in Reims. From 1996 to 1998, he was appointed as Commander of Cazaux Air Base. This base hosts one of the main French flight test centres, several advanced French flying training squadrons and a permanently stationed Singaporean training Squadron. General Palomeros has also been deployed in Vicenza, Italy (1993) as Deputy Commander of the French Air Force during Operation "Crecerelle", as well as in Operation Deny Flight, and then in Kiseljak, Bosnia-Herzegovina (1995) where he was in charge of coordinating the air-ground campaign during Operation Deliberate Force. He headed the "Studies and Strategic Plans" Department of the French Air Force Staff in 1998. After being promoted to Brigadier General in 2001, he was appointed as Chairman of the Capability Development Committee within the French Joint Staff and in August 2002 became the Head of the Plans and Program Division. In 1993, General Palomeros graduated from the Royal Air Force Staff College, Bracknell in Great Britain, where he was awarded the Curtis Prize by the British Chief of the Air Staff.

Paloméros was appointed Vice-Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, in April 2005. After being promoted general, he went on to serve as Air Force Chief of Staff from 2009 to 2012. At the end of his time in the senior French Air Force appointment, Paloméros was confirmed by the NATO Council as Supreme Allied Commander Transformation on 6 August 2012 and assumed Command in Norfolk, Virginia, on 28 September 2012.

Major military awards
In 2009, Paloméros was awarded the rank of Grand Officer of the French Legion of Honour. He is also an Officer of the National Order of Merit and holds the Aeronautical Medal.


 * Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur
 * Officer of the Ordre national du Mérite
 * Médaille de l'Aéronautique
 * Overseas Medal with bar
 * Médaille commémorative française with bar
 * Unidentified
 * United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium
 * Unidentified
 * Unidentified
 * Unidentified
 * Santos-Dumont Medal of Merit (Medalha do Mérito Santos Dumont), Brazilian Air Force
 * Guatemalan Armed Forces Cross with two crossed sabres (2x)
 * Pingat Jasa Gemilang (Tentera)