Rear Admiral Mark Hammond joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1986 as an electronics technician. He was commissioned as a naval officer in 1988, joined HMAS Collins as navigating officer in 1996 (during First of Class Trials) and was selected as Flag Lieutenant to the Chief of Navy, served as the commissioning operations officer in HMAS Waller in 1998, assumed duties as executive officer in HMAS Sheean in 2001, staff officer of future concepts at Naval Headquarters in late 2003, and deployed on operations with the Royal Navy Submarine force before assuming command of HMAS Farncomb and completing two years of demanding operations in the Indo Pacific region. In late 2014, Rear Admiral Hammond was appointed director general of maritime operations, before relocating in 2017 to the US for duties in the Pentagon as the chief of defence force liaison officer to General Joseph Dunford, chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Rear Admiral Hammond returned to Australia in March 2018 to assume duties as deputy chief of navy. He has sea experience in French, British and US nuclear attack submarines, Australian and Dutch conventional submarines, and multiple surface vessels. He holds a Bachelor of Science, Masters in Management, Masters in Maritime Studies, and is pursuing a PhD in Strategic Studies at the University of Wollongong.
