Brad Cooper (admiral)

Charles Bradford Cooper II (born 1967) is an American admiral who has served as the commander of the United States Central Command since 2025. He most recently served as its deputy commander from 2024 to 2025, and before that was commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. Fifth Fleet, and Combined Maritime Forces from 2021 to 2024. He has led U.S. forces in combat operations during the Red Sea crisis and the 2026 Iran war.

Cooper graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1989. A career surface warfare officer, his commands included a destroyer, a cruiser, U.S. Naval Forces Korea, and Expeditionary Strike Group 7. He has been deployed during combat operations in the Gulf War and the lead-up to the Iraq War; the Yugoslav Wars; and the war in Afghanistan. Cooper served in the Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan while an advisor to the Afghan government, the Navy Personnel Command, U.S. Africa Command, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Other senior posts that he held include Chief of Legislative Affairs of the United States Navy from 2019 to 2020 and Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic, from 2020 to 2021.

In June 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that Cooper was President Donald Trump's nominee for commander of the United States Central Command. Cooper is the first Navy admiral to hold the post since William J. Fallon in 2008.