Christopher Hayes

Commander Christopher Hayes is the U.S. Navy fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Before joining CSIS, he served as an aviation commander detailer at Navy Personnel Command, responsible for critical alignment of personnel resources, skills, and job function to meet operational and staff billet assignments for 1,100 senior Navy constituents. Prior to assignment at the Navy’s manpower command, he served as commanding officer of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron TWO TWO (HSC-22), leading 240 military personnel and four forward deployed detachments, and managed over $330 million in physical assets and the execution of a $2-million operating budget. HSC-22 engaged in global operations and tactical innovation, including introduction and deployment of the Navy’s newest armed helicopter weapons system and integration with the newest class ship, LCS-1, USS FREEDOM. CDR Hayes has operational experience flying, attached to the Combined Joint Special Operations Air Component (CJSOAC) in Iraq, and extensive experience in military support to disaster relief and humanitarian assistance missions, including operations in Sumatra, Pakistan, New Orleans, and Haiti. Previous military tours have included assignments in expeditionary and amphibious operations, with extensive joint Marine Corps operations, fleet logistics, tactical development, fleet training and evaluation. He has authored papers examining Navy operational leadership and advocating establishment of a U.S. Joint Helicopter Command.

Commander Hayes is a 1992 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Air Command and Staff College course and the Navy’s Seahawk Weapons and Tactics Instructor course. He holds an M.S. in global leadership from the University of San Diego School of Business and an M.A. in national security and strategic studies (with distinction) from the Naval War College. While at the War College, he was an inaugural Stockdale Leadership Fellow during the establishment of the College of Operational and Strategic Leadership. In addition to numerous personal, unit, and campaign awards, he is the recipient of the James V. Forrestal Award for Strategy and Force Planning.