Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
Jonathan Paul Earley, is a senior officer in the
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...
(RAN). He joined the RAN as a maritime warfare officer in January 1990, and has commanded (2011–12) and (2017–18). He served as
Commander Australian Fleet
Fleet Command is responsible for the command, operations, readiness, training and force generation of all ships, submarines, aircraft squadrons, diving teams, and shore establishments of the Royal Australian Navy. Fleet Command is headquartered a ...
from June to December 2022, before taking over as the
Deputy Chief of Navy
The Deputy Chief of Navy (DCN) is the second most senior appointment in the Royal Australian Navy, responsible to the Chief of Navy (CN). The rank associated with the position is rear admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer ...
on 16 December 2022.
Naval career
As part of the
2017 Australia Day Honours
The 2017 Australia Day Honours were announced on 26 January 2017 by the Governor General of Australia, Sir Peter Cosgrove.Conspicuous Service Cross for "outstanding achievement and devotion to duty in maritime operational and humanitarian response planning and deployment."