Philip Nash joined the Royal Navy as a Fleet Air Arm Observer, qualifying for front-line service on the Lynx maritime attack helicopter in 1997. His early career was dominated by operations at sea in Royal Navy destroyers as a member of a ship’s flight team, deploying with NATO, coalition and UN forces in the Mediterranean and Adriatic, in the Arabian Gulf, the Indian Ocean and in the Far East.

After subsequently qualifying as a Principle Warfare Officer (‘SWO’) in 2003 he saw further deployed service, predominantly in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf regions, as a Type 23 frigate operations officer. His most recent operational experience has been in the introduction to service of the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers; he was the second in command of the first of these (HMS Daring), and commanded the fifth (HMS Defender). During his three years in command he oversaw Defender’s emergence from build in Glasgow, Scotland, through sea trials and training, to operations, whether at high readiness escorting Russian warships through UK waters, or as a fully integrated member of the George H W Bush and Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Groups in the Arabian Gulf in 2014

In addition to operational appointments he has served twice on the staff of the Royal Navy Command HQ in Portsmouth, UK in capability and force generation posts, and twice in the UK Ministry of Defence in London, most recently leading on both longer term strategy formulation and shorter term defence review activity. He has also served on the staff of the Portsmouth Flotilla where he was responsible for the force generation, safety and long-term care of two thirds of the Navy’s frigates, destroyers, and their people. A graduate of the University of Bristol, King’s College London, the UK Advanced Command and Staff Course, the Royal College of Defence Studies, and the Capstone course, Nash served as the Naval Attaché with the British Defense Staff in Washington, DC immediately prior to taking up duties as the Deputy Director, CJOS COE in July 2022