Captain Rafael Guerra Soler

Head of Naval Aviation Spanish Navy Headquarter

Navy Captain Rafael Guerra Soler was born in Madrid in 1966. He joined the Naval Academy in August 1987 and was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade in 1992.

In 1993 he was appointed to US. Navy flight program in NAS Pensacola and Whiting Field. In 1994 he became a naval helicopter pilot and assigned to Tenth Squadron as operations officer in the SH-60B model. As a naval pilot he served on board several Santa Maria class frigates where he was integrated into NATO Standing Naval Force in the Mediterranean during several deployments. In 1996 he was promoted to Lieutenant remaining in the helicopter squadron as a flight commander on board several fleet ships followed by an assignment to the Spanish Carrier “Principe de Asturias” as a Flight Ops officer. In January 2004 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and appointed executive officer on board “Reina Sofia” frigate.

Captain Guerra has been Commanding Officer of Auxiliary ship “Mar Caribe” and offshore patrol boat “Infanta Elena”, a previous fleet corvette turned into patrol boat in 2005, multirole frigate “Santa Maria” and the Spanish Navy Aircraft Flotilla until June 2022. He is currently Branch Head Naval Aviation at the Spanish Navy HQ.

His shore assignments include: AV8B+ Class Desk at the Airwing Department of the Spanish Navy Headquarter, High Readiness Maritime Forces Headquarter in the UK, NATO Maritime Command Northwood and the Spanish Joint Operations Command. In July 2019 he was promoted to Navy Captain.

He is specialist in Electronic Warfare and Naval Helicopter Pilot as well as Joint Staff Officer. He has been awarded the following decorations: Five Naval Merit Crosses, One Military Merit Cross, Decoration and Cross of San Hermenegildo Military Order, NATO Cross and EU Cross.

He is married to Marta and has three children: Nuria, Rafa and Ignacio.