HMS Ocean

Military experience

Captain Andrew Betton joined the Royal Navy in 1987 as a University Cadet and was awarded the Queen’s Sword at Dartmouth. Fleet Training in HMS Peacock in Hong Kong and HMS Exeter, including service during the first Gulf War, led to his first appointment as the Navigating Officer in HMS Redpole, where he served for 2 years as part of the Northern Ireland Squadron.

In 1993 he was accepted into the Fleet Air Arm and joined 815 Squadron at Portland operating Lynx helicopters. Serving as the Flight Observer in HMS Exeter, Boxer and Cumberland, and later as the Flight Commander in HMS Newcastle, he experienced a wide variety of operational flying, ranging from the Caribbean and North Atlantic to the Arabian Gulf.

Captain Betton completed Principal Warfare Officer Training in 2000 and was appointed to HMS Grafton as PWO(A), before attending the Advanced Command and Staff Course, where he gained a Masters degree in Defence Studies.

Following promotion to Commander in 2003 and an appointment to the Permanent Joint Headquarters, with responsibility for Rules of Engagement and Targeting, he assumed command of HMS Westminster, deploying to West Africa and the North Atlantic, before moving to the Equipment Capability area of the Ministry of Defence, with desk responsibility for the procurement of the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers.

With ‘Main Gate’ approval achieved for the new ships, he moved to FOST as Commander Sea Training in December 2007, delivering Operational Sea Training for a wide range of British and foreign warships.

Promoted Captain, he deployed to the Arabian Gulf as the Commander of the Iraqi Maritime Task Group, with tactical responsibility for the protection of Iraqi’s offshore oil infrastructure. He took command of HMS Ocean in April 2011.