Vice Admiral Andrew Burns CB OBE

Vice Admiral Andrew Burns retired from the Royal Navy in 2026, having been the Fleet Commander for four years commanding all operational arms of the Royal Navy (Surface Flotilla, Submarine Flotilla, Fleet Air Arm, Royal Marines and Royal Fleet Auxiliary), their generation for task and global deployment.

Andrew joined the Royal Navy in 1989, graduated from the University of Durham and saw service on operations across the world. He commanded the mine countermeasures vessel HMS Berkeley, the frigate HMS SOMERSET and the amphibious assault ship HMS BULWARK, and was appointed OBE in 2015. Promoted to Commodore, he commanded the Amphibious Task Group, which included command of the US Fifth Fleet Combined Task Force 50 as the Principal Warfighting Commander. As Commander United Kingdom Strike Force, he was the Royal Navy’s deployable 2* commander. 

Shore appointments included: the UK Headquarters for Operation TELIC; the Multinational Force Headquarters (Baghdad); Directorates of Special Forces and Strategic Plans in the Ministry of Defence; Commander Sea Training; Joint Forces Command; Assistant Chief of Staff Ships in NCHQ; and latterly, Director Develop, the design authority for the future navy during a major transformation programme. He was appointed CB in 2021.

He has attended the Royal College of Defence Studies and is a graduate of the Advanced Command and Staff Course and the Higher Command and Staff Course. He has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Changing Character of War Programme, University of Oxford, holds Honorary Doctorates of Science from the Universities of Durham and Plymouth, and is an alumnus of the London and Oxford University Said Business Schools. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and the Institute of Chartered Managers, he is a Younger Brother of Trinity House and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Master Mariners.

He is now an executive and non-executive board member.