Commander Erich Frandrup is the commanding officer at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center (NDSTC). In academic year 2019 to 2020, he served as the senior US Navy fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

Prior to the Atlantic Council, Erich was assigned to the Joint Staff, where he served as both the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) action officer in the operations directorate (J3) and the executive assistant to the deputy director for nuclear and homeland defense operations. Throughout his seventeen-year military career, Erich deployed four times to the Middle East to include two deployments to Bahrain in support of the Navy’s 5^th Fleet and two deployments to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Erich is a qualified EOD officer, surface warfare officer, and a basic dive officer. Originally from Newport, Washington, he graduated in 2002 from the United States Naval Academy with a bachelor’s of science degree in ocean engineering. Erich also received a master’s of art degree in national security and strategic studies from the United States Naval War College and a master’s of science degree in mechanical engineering from Duke University.