Bryan Kelchner is currently serving as the Vice President of Engineering at Teknicare, Inc., headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Teknicare provides engineering, safety, and data management support to the Department of Defense, specializing in electro-optical and laser systems design, development, integration and testing. Bryan is a graduate of the USAF Academy and the Air Force Institute of Technology, with BS degrees in Physics and Astronautical Engineering, and a MS degree in Solid State Physics. He has over 35 years of experience in the development and testing of electro-optical and laser systems.
Bryan was instrumental in the early phases of the Airborne Laser Program (ABL), as the Government Lead for the beam control and fire control IPT and then as the Deputy Director for air vehicle integration. He also worked on the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) as the Lead Engineer for the beam control development, as the Flight Test Director during low power flight tests, and as the Chief Engineer during high power integration and testing. He has worked as the Lead Systems Engineer and Chief Engineer on other electro-optics and laser programs on ground and airborne systems as well at Space Object Tracking facilities. Early in his career Bryan was involved in the satellite designs for the Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Bryan and his Teknicare Engineering team are currently providing engineering support to the US Navy at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia, and for the US Air Force at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in Albuquerque, New Mexico