Rear Admiral Justin Jones, CSC, RAN Commander JATF Operation Sovereign Borders
Rear Admiral Justin Jones was born in Adelaide, South Australia. He was educated at Geelong Grammar School and joined the Royal Australian Navy from Melbourne in January 1988. He is a graduate of the Royal Australian Naval College and the Australian Command and Staff College, and holds a Masters in Management Studies, a Master of Arts (Strategy and Policy) and a Graduate Diploma in Defence Studies.
Rear Admiral Jones is a Principal Warfare Officer with dual specialisations in surface warfare and advanced navigation. He has served in HMA Ships Brisbane, Success, Bunbury, Westralia, Hobart, Wollongong, Sydney, Arunta, Manoora and Parramatta; accumulating a significant amount of sea time during numerous deployments in the Indo-Pacific and extensive engagement with navies and armed forces throughout the region.
Rear Admiral Jones had command of the guided missile frigate HMAS Newcastle from December 2008 to July 2010. In 2009, the ship was awarded the Duke of Gloucester Cup for overall efficiency and the Spada Shield for the surface combatant foremost in operations. Rear Admiral Jones then had command of the combat support ship HMAS Success from October 2014 to May 2016, during which the ship deployed to the Middle East and North West Indian Ocean on Operation MANITOU. He resumed command of Success from 18 August to 18 November 2016 for an Indian Ocean deployment.
Rear Admiral Jones has fulfilled varied roles ashore, encompassing training, operations, experimentation, and in force structure. He also served on exchange with the Royal Navy as a Staff Warfare Officer within Flag Officer Sea Training in Plymouth. He took command of Navy's Training Force as Commodore Training from November 2016 to November 2019. As Commodore Training he was responsible for all Navy training, from initial entry to retirement, including sea based collective training. Most recently, Rear Admiral Jones completed two years as Director General Operations at Headquarters Joint Operations Command. In this role he was responsible to the Chief of Joint Operations for the planning, integration, coordination, control and monitoring of all Australian Defence Forces operations; domestic, regional, and global.
Rear Admiral Jones was the inaugural Navy Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in 2010, contributing to the Lowy Institute MacArthur Foundation's major publication Crisis and Confidence: major powers and maritime security in Indo-Pacific Asia. He also edited the book A Maritime School of Strategic Thought for Australia: Perspectives in 2013, while serving as Director of the Navy's think tank the Sea Power Centre – Australia.
Rear Admiral Jones was the recipient of the 2006 Vice Admiral Viscount Horatio Nelson KB Trafalgar Bicentennial Sword of Excellence for leadership. In the 2016 Queen's Birthday honours, he was awarded a Conspicuous Service Cross for outstanding devotion to duty as the Commanding Officer, HMAS Success while deployed on Operation MANITOU. He also wears the Meritorious Unit Citation awarded to HMAS Parramatta for performance in the North Arabian Gulf on Operation CATALYST in 2005-06.
Rear Admiral Jones is married to Terrie and they have two adult daughters. His extracurricular interests include reading, water skiing, almost any team sport, watching musical theatre and, occasionally, playing the drums.
