King's Birthday Honours: Royal Australian Navy Vice-Admiral Mark Hammond appointed officer of the order of Australia

The Chief of Navy, who was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia for the King's birthday on Monday, is looking forward to being handed the outcome of a "short, sharp" review into his force - the last ball falling out of the air for now, he says.

Following a recommendation in the April release of the Defence Strategic Review, Defence Minister Richard Marles announced the review into the Navy's surface combatant fleet that will determine its shape in the years to come.

The review is expected to take place after the financial year with the outcome out before 2023's end.

But before that, Vice-Admiral Hammond is excited to get a week off before diving into some of the Navy's other upcoming challenges.

"It's been been a very interesting role for lots of reasons - very challenging, very demanding, but a real privilege," he said.

In that 11 months, there's been a strategic review, the public announcement of the AUKUS deal to acquire nuclear-powered submarines and an ongoing tension within the Indo-Pacific.

And in one incident in November last year, Australian warships were challenged by the People's Liberation Army near the disputed Spratly Islands - an archipelago in the South China Sea.

Vice-Admiral Hammond knows it's a tough time to be in the hot seat.

"The biggest challenge is it's not a business as usual environment," he said.

"It's been a unique leadership experience and a certain amount of that has required strategic patience as we wait for the Defence Strategic Review outcomes to unpack coupled with a very urgent and deliberate focus on the nuclear submarine optimal pathway."

First joining as an electronics technician in 1986, Vice-Admiral Hammond has worked across many jobs over his nearly four decades in the Navy.

He says the place has become a more "diverse, inclusive and frankly, respectful workforce than what I encountered on on day one."

But it's the technological change he's seen over that time that has helped prepare for him the role.

The Navy chief served on Oberon class submarines until they were replaced the Collins class submarine, which is still in operation today.

He recalls similar backlash to the planned AUKUS-SSN submarines as that against the transition between the Oberon and Collins class submarines in the 1990s and early 2000s.

"It was a little over 20 years ago, everybody was talking about how challenging that [Collins class] program was, how the submarines weren't the capability that we were hoping for," Vice-Admiral Hammond said.

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"It's kind of ironic now to be in this role and have people writing to me telling me we should be building more of them.

"There's probably nothing more complex than developing a sovereign underwater aerospace capability, and that's what submarines are.

"It takes time. It takes a lot of effort. It's always high risk but ultimately if we exercise patience, we end up with a pretty good outcome."

The other major hurdle for Navy is recruitment and retention.

It's not an issue unique to the maritime force but one needing particular attention as the federal government promises to deliver the ambitious, decades-long nuclear-submarine program.

One initiative is the one-off retention payment for serving personnel announced in the May federal budget.

Under the scheme, permanent ADF members are eligible to receive a $50,000 bonus payment near the end of their initial mandatory period of service, if they commit to the military for another three years.

Other plans are underway but Vice Admiral Hammond is waiting to see how the moves unfold before professing success.

"I derive confidence from evidence. And it's too early to tell yet," he said.

"It is a very challenging and competitive recruiting environment for every business owner in every industry in Australia right now.

"I honestly think that our job as senior leaders is to create an environment where people want to get out of bed and come to work because of what we do and how we do it.

"No organisation is perfect, but if that's our goal, and we get up every day, then I think we're doing OK."