New Commanding Officer for 750 NAS at RNAS Culdrose
Lieutenant Commander Chris Barber has taken command of 750 Naval Air Squadron from Lieutenant Commander Nick Armstrong at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose.
Born in Oxford and educated at Abingdon School before graduating with honours at the University of Birmingham Chris joined the Royal Navy in 1993 and after initial training at BRNC Dartmouth, trained as an Observer in the Fleet Air Arm.
Gaining his wings in 1996 he was appointed to 849 Naval Air Squadron “A” Flight serving in HMS Invincible and HMS Illustrious. This included operational tours in support of NATO operations in Kosovo and in the northern Arabian Gulf, also serving in USS Carl Vinson and USS Theodore Roosevelt as the Royal Navy Aviation Officer.
Subsequently appointed to 750 Squadron as an Observer Instructor, he was selected for an exchange tour with the RAF, teaching RAF Navigators and Weapon System Officers on the Dominie aircraft and returned to RNAS Culdrose in November 2004 as the Chief Observer Instructor responsible for observer grading and teaching the next generation of observer and aircrewman instructors.
Returning to the Airborne Early Warning community in 2007 he was appointed to 857 Naval Air Squadron as the Operations Officer and saw deployments on RFA Fort Austin and RFA Argus in support of counter-piracy and counter-terrorism operations.
Promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 2007 and appointed as Senior Observer of 849 Naval Air Squadron in 2008, he was responsible for the provision of sufficient crews within the Sea King ASaC community to enable the deployment of the force to Afghanistan in 2009.
Lieutenant Commander Barber was then appointed to HQ Navy Command responsible for Observer training in the Royal Navy during the Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010, and the implementation of the United Kingdom Military Flying Training System for RN Observer training commencing in 2011.
He assumed his current post as Commanding Officer of 750 Naval Air Squadron in November 2011 and will oversee the arrival of the new Avenger aircraft to the Squadron. He lives in Falmouth with his wife Tamsin.
Photo: MOD Copyright by LA(PHOT) Sahra Richards.