Vice Admiral Claudio Henrique Mello de Almeida

Commander in Chief of the Fleet Brazilian Navy

Vice Admiral Claudio Mello, Commander in Chief of the Fleet, is a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and joined the Brazilian Navy in 1982, receiving his commission in December 1985 from the Escola Naval (Brazilian Naval Academy), as a Surface Warfare Officer.

As a junior officer, until the mid 1990’s, he was assigned to frigates, where he served as Communications, Anti-Submarine Warfare and Operations Officer, taking part in several exercises along the east coast of South America and West Africa, and working later as a Frigate Squadron staff officer. From January through June 1994, he was deployed to the Mediterranean, as an exchange officer with the US Navy. His shore duties include the Office of the Commandant of the Navy, in Brasilia, as Assistant for Military Personnel; a two-year tour as exchange instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, in Annapolis, MD; and the staff of the Commander in Chief of the Fleet, where he was Head of Operations (N3). Among his command tours as junior and senior officer are the Minesweeper “Abrolhos”, Frigate “Greenhalgh”, Escort Squadron Two and the Fleet Training Center, in Rio. Promoted to flag rank in 2014, he acted as Deputy CNO for Logistics and Budget Planning until February 2016, when he was assigned for a one-year tour as Commander of the Maritime Task-Force of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon – UNIFIL, the only naval force to take part in a UN peacekeeping mission. Upon returning to Brazil, in 2017, he served as Director of the Brazilian Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics and, later, as Commander of the 8 th Naval District, in São Paulo. In December 2019, he was appointed Commander in Chief of the Fleet, his current assignment.

He is a 1989 graduate of the Naval Communications Officer Course, a 2001 graduate of the College of Naval Command and Staff - U.S. Naval War College (NWC) and a 2012 graduate of the Maritime Policy and Strategy Course of the Brazilian Naval War College. In May 2015, he took part in the Combined Force Maritime Component Commander (CFMCC) Course, held by the U.S. Southern Command and the NWC, in Miami, USA.

He is married to Glaicy, and they have three daughters, Thais, Laís and Sophia.