Air MarshalChristopher Mark Nickols,CB,CBE,FRAeS,DL (born 23 July 1956) is a retired senior officer in theRoyal Air Force, whose final appointment wasChief of Defence Intelligence. Prior to that he served asAssistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Operations).

Chris Nickols
Air Marshal Nickols inspects troops in 2010
Born	(1956-07-23)23 July 1956 (age 68)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/ branch	Royal Air Force
Years of service	1974–2012
Rank	Air Marshal
Commands	Air Warfare Centre RAF Lossiemouth No. 2 Squadron
Battles / wars	Kosovo War Iraq War
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Educated atSt Edmund's School inCanterbury and having read engineering atDowning College, Cambridge, Nickols joined theRoyal Air Force in 1974.^[1][2] He served as a pilot, flyingJaguars in Germany for 9 years before becoming Officer CommandingNo. 2 Squadron in 1993. He was appointed Director of the UK Combined Air Operations Centre in 1997, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff atPermanent Joint Headquarters atNorthwood during theKosovo War and then Station Commander atRAF Lossiemouth in 2000.^[1] He was also Air Commodore Offensive Operations at HeadquartersNo. 1 Group,^[1] and was Director of the Combined Air Operations Centre for four months in 2003 during theIraq War.^[1] He was made Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Operations) in 2005 andChief of Defence Intelligence in 2009.^[1]

Nickols is Chairman of the RAF Polo Association,^[3] and aDeputy Lieutenant of Kent.^[4]