Brigadier General of the Army Corps of Engineers Giampaolo LILLO began his officer career at the Scuola di Applicazione di Torino where he attended the Army Corps of Engineers course.
After his Aeronautical Engineer diploma at the Politecnico of Turin he jointed a two years post graduate course for specialisation on armament for Military Engineers of the Army in Turin and Rome, the IT Army War College in Civitavecchia and the national Joint War College in Rome, the 103° Senior Course of NATO Defence College and the SERA Course organized by the French Ministry of Defence and the ”High level course for Security and Defence” held by the European Security and Defence College in Brussels.
He started his career as Chief of the Test and Study Section of the Land ammunition military factory in Baiano di Spoleto and after that he moved to Portogruaro (Venice) where he was Technical Supervisor of the two main weapon systems of the 3^ Missile Brigade, the Lance Missile weapons System and the surveillance UAV “Drone AN USD 501”.
Later in Rome, he was Director of the Land Artillery missile Section of the General Directorate of Land Armament of the Ministry of Defence, where, as IT MLRS program Manager and FIROS 30 Project Manager, he was in charge of the establishment of the European production line of the MLRS rocket systems and of the qualification program of the FIROS 30 rockets. During the same time he also covered several other national and international tasks such as National Representative at the Western Armament Group (WEAG) CEPA 13 Steering Committee (R&T in the field of energetic materials), at NAMSA in the field of integrated logistics and as associate professor in Missile technology at the post graduate Specialisation course for Military Engineers of the Army.
Afterward in Paris, Brigadier General LILLO was involved in the development program of the anti-aircraft weapon system FSAF in the French-Italian program office as responsible of Missile and Launchers Division for Italy.
Back in Rome, at the Research and Technology Department (5° Reparto) of General Secretariat and National Armament Directorate of IT MOD, he had been in charge of research strategy and Defence technology research planning and management by covering a number of tasks in the past eleven years such as, R&T Strategy Office Chief, Deputy Chief Department, Chief Department and R&T Director, covering also a number of international positions in the R&T field such as NATO RT Board Member and LoI Group of Research Director Member. Included in his responsibility was also the Military Patents and IPR Service of IT MOD which is in charge of verifying all the national patents productions for Defence purposes.
Brigadier General LILLO was also member of the Security Program Committee of the 7th Framework Program for EU Research on behalf of the IT Ministry of Education, University and Research where he was in charge of the interministerial coordination on the subject of Research for Security.
Lastly he is member of the Ministerial Commission for the supervision of management of the National Aerospace Research Program (PRORA) and of the National Centre for Aerospace Research (CIRA) and Member of the professional Engineers association of Rome.
Brigadier General LILLO is Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, he is married and has two daughters.
Since December 2011 he has been appointed EDA Armaments Director.