Rear Admiral Jacques de Solms (FRA)
Commander Maritime Air Northwood

Rear Admiral Jacques de Solms entered the Naval Academy in September 1975 and was part of the 1977/1978 officers’ training tour aboard helicopter-carrier Jeanne d’Arc. First appointed as Operations Officer aboard a landing ship in French Polynesia, he then chose to serve in the Naval Air Arm.

He received his fighter pilot’s wings in 1981 and graduated as a helicopter pilot in 1983. He successively held the positions of Head of Detachment, Executive Officer and Squadron Commanding Officer. He mainly operated on aircraft-carriers Foch and Clemenceau, helicopter-carrier Jeanne d’Arc and destroyer Dupleix and took part in
many operations off Lebanon and in the Indian Ocean.
On completion of the Madrid Naval War College in 1992, he held responsibilities at the Naval Staff Headquarters and in organic and operational staffs. As the air expert in the staff of the Naval Action Force Commander, he took part in 1995 and 1996 deployments of the carrier battle group in the Adriatic. In the course of these deployments he assumed, in close coordination with the allies, the planning of the carrier aviation missions above Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1997, he was appointed as Commanding Officer of FS Marne and took part in the 1997/1998 officers’ training deployment in the Indian Ocean.Back in the Mediterranean, his ship was deployed off Kosovo within the carrier
battle group from October to December 1998.

In early 1999, he rejoined at the Naval Staff Headquarters in Paris to take on the responsibilities of Deputy Chief of the International Relations and Cooperation Office and Head of the Export Support Department. In this position, he was in charge of the transfer of aircraft-carrier Foch to the Brazilian Navy. In September 2001, he attended NATO Defence College’s 99th session and then was appointed as Defence Attaché to the French Embassy in Spain. He moved back to the Naval Staff HQ on September 2005 as Head of the International Relations and Cooperation Office. In summer 2008, he moved to Naples as Head of the French Military Mission to the COM JFC Naples and from September 2009 served as Director of Operations and Assistant Chief of Staff in this HQ. He took up his current position in MC Northwood as Commander Maritime Air Northwood on the 1st of August 2010.
Rear Admiral Jacques de Solms is married to Clémentine and they have four children.

He has been awarded Officer of the Legion of Honour, Officer of the National
Order of Merit, Overseas Medal with Lebanon and Ormuz clasps, Silver Medal of
National Defence with Naval Aviation and Support Missions Abroad clasps, French
Commemorative Medal Former Yugoslavia, NATO Medal with Former Yugoslavia clasp
and Spanish Naval Merit Cross.