Paul Flos was born in Tegelen, Netherlands, in 1966. At the age of

18, he started his officer training at the Royal Naval College in

Den Helder. After completing his training, operational postings

on HNLMS Tromp and HNLMS De Ruyter, including the work-up

programme and operational deployment, were alternated with

shore-based positions with the Underwater Signatures

Department at the Directorate of Materiel of the Royal

Netherlands Navy(RNLN) in The Hague and at the RNLN’s

Artificer Training Centre in Amsterdam. In the latter position, he

was the founder of the Procedures Training Office and one of the

initiators of the integration of technical procedure training in the

standard work-up programme of ships.

His posting as Deputy Head of the Engineering Department on

board HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes, the first M frigate to complete

Netherlands Operational Sea Training (including a

deployment in the Arabian Gulf), was followed by his first

deployment abroad, from 1999 to 2002. In Aix-en-Provence

(France), he was responsible for the integration of external

equipment with the NH-90 helicopter and also made a start

with setting up the helicopter’s configuration management

system. He was also elected President of the NATO Helicopter

Management Agency Staff Association.

Back in the Netherlands, Paul Flos was posted on board HNLMS

Abraham van der Hulst as Head of the Engineering

Department, only to be transferred after just one year to

HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes, which was in the work-up process. In his

role of Head of the Engineering Department, he was

responsible for implementing the first project to combine the

engineering and weapons departments on board into one

materiel department, supported by a new software

programme. After being transferred to shore, he joined the

Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) to take part in the

Landing Platform Dock 2 project as a mechanical systems

engineer and was closely involved in the implementation of a

new type of propulsion for this ship.

In 2006-2007, he successfully completed the Advanced Defence

Studies course, followed by his second overseas posting as Defence

Attaché in Syria, Lebanon and Iran.