Rear Admiral Christophe Cluzel

Deputy Commander of COMFRMARFOR French Navy

Born in Brest in 1971, Rear Admiral Christophe Cluzel is married and a father of 5. Graduated from the French Naval Academy in 1994, he was successively assigned between 1994 and 1998 to the patrol boat “Grèbe”, the LSD “Ouragan”, the anti-air destroyer “Cassard” and the frigate “Ventôse”. He then took part in fishing survey mission, especially in the French Southern and Antarctic islands, but also in the very first counternarcotic operations in the Caribbean sea.

He graduated from the Naval warfare and weapons school in 1999 and embarked on the antisubmarine Destroyer “La Motte-Picquet” for both a Corymbe mission west of Africa and the Khor Angar operation in the Red Sea. From 2001 to 2002, he commanded the patrol boat « La Moqueuse » based in New Caledonia. Back in Toulon, he became operations Officer aboard Anti-submarine Destroyer “Montcalm”, and took part in the operations Amarante and Enduring Freedom, before integrating the French Carrier strike group (CSG) in 2004 for the Operation Agapanthe in the Indian Ocean. Assigned as the Weapon Systems officer of the anti air destroyer « Jean Bart » in 2004, he took part once more in the FRAM deployment of the French CSG.

Early 2006, he was commissioned as the commanding officer of the frigate “Enseigne de vaisseau Jacoubet”, deploying twice in the Indian Ocean in Enduring Freedom operation and took part to the fight against piracy off Somalia. In 2008 he graduated from the Collège Interarmées de Défense before being appointed at the Délégation aux affaires stratégiques - former French OSD -, responsible for the ballistic missile defense and the fight against piracy. In 2010, he became executive Officer of the anti-air destroyer “Forbin” and has been deployed both in the French CSG deployment in the Indian Ocean and Harmattan Operation off Libya.

As the head of Operations of the ALINDIEN COMFOR EAU Joint head quarter for the next 3 years, he assumed operational control of the joint operations within the Middle East/Indian Ocean area, including several hostage release operations, and contributed to numerous multilateral defense plans. In 2014, he became Chief of staff of the French carrier strike group and held the duty on board Charles de Gaulle during the Arromanches deployment, during which the TF473 took part in the Operation inherent Resolve over Irak. He assumed command of the anti-air destroyer “Forbin” from august 2015 to august 2017 and drove his crew during more than 8 months in the frame of the operation Inherent Resolve, especially during Arromanches 3 deployment, within the French CSG, but also within different US CSG. He was privileged to be selected in 2017 for the Centre des Hautes Etudes Militaires before joining the military office of the Minister of the Armed forces, as military advisor for operations and international relations, from 2018 to 2020.

He is appointed in August 2020 as deputy commander of COMFRMARFOR. He is deployed as force commander of operation AGENOR (CTF474) from end of august 2020 to mid-january 2021. He is promoted Rear Admiral on January 1, 2021.