Michael Dreessen
Executive Director, Engineering Space and Air Systems
General Atomics, Electromagnetics Systems Group
Mike Dreessen is the Executive Director of Missile Defense and Space Systems (MD&SS) Engineering in General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Group (GA-EMS), providing engineering services in railguns, high energy storage and delivery systems, hyper velocity projectiles, glide bodies, missiles, satellites, specialty payloads, and aerospace systems design, development, integration, and test. Dreessen joined Miltec Corporation in August 1999, where he served as the Vice President of Engineering. Miltec was acquired by GA-EMS in March 2016.
Dreessen has over 35 years of experience in Engineering and Program Management. He received his BS in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University in 1983.
Dreessen is responsible for the overall management of the MD&SS engineering and technician staff and coordinating staffing and facility requirements supporting the program managers within GA-EMS. He also served as the Program Manager for the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon Technology Demonstration Program. As Program Manager, Dreessen was responsible for managing program cost and schedule and for providing overall technical and resource coordination between all 16 teammates and the government partners (USASMDC/ARSTRAT, Sandia and AMRDEC. Previously he served as the Integrated Product Team (IPT) lead for avionics, power network and ground support equipment for the Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM) and Low Cost Interceptor (LCI) programs. Product Development Team (PDT) lead for the Space Vehicle (SV) on both SMDC’s Advanced Space Vehicle Development (ASVD) and Army Counterspace Technology (ACT) Testbed programs. Program Manager of the Infrared Instrumentation System (IRIS) airborne IR data collection system integrated on a Gulfstream IIB aircraft. Mike is responsible for providing technical support to programs managed by SMDC, AMRDEC, MDA, Navy, Air Force and commercial entities in the areas of railguns, hypervelocity projectiles, boosters, structures, navigation, guidance and control, EO/IR sensors and electronics, ground support equipment, ground, flight and weapon system test planning, systems integration testing, flight safety, data collection, reduction and analysis.
Previously Dreessen was the Program Manager for Theater Missile Defense at CACI Automated Sciences Group responsible for manager program costs and schedules, and providing technical coordination of aero-optic and aero-thermal experiments. He was also the Assistant Program Manager and Lead Engineer for Teledyne Brown Engineering in the HEDI Test and Integration Program. He also served as a lead technical advisor to the USASSDC Mission Manager for the HEDI KITE 1, 2 and 2A flight tests, as a technical advisor on THAAD flight tests 1-9 and provided direct support to the USASMDC technical leadership representatives.