Rear Admiral YN Jayarathne joined the Sri Lanka Navy as an Officer Cadet in 1986. He completed his Officer Cadet training at Naval & Maritime Academy, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. Having topped the batch he was selected to undergo International Midshipman Course in Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth UK in 1988/89.

On return, his first appointment was to the Navy’s elite Fast Attack Craft (FAC) Flotilla as an additional officer and over the rest of his career he was associated with FACs as Officer-In-Command, Training Officer, Training Commander & finally as the Flotilla Commander in 2007-2008. He was hand-picked to be the Flotilla’s Training Officer twice; in 1999-2000and in 2006-2007 by the Command. His experience in fighting asymmetrical threats posed by the separatist terrorist’s sea unit ‘Sea Tigers’ is highly respected in the SL Navy. He had been decorated for gallantry thrice; twice by Rana Wickrama Paddakkama. To compliment his valour, he also holds a Master’s Degree in Defence Studies from University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka and another Masters in Hydrography from University of Goa, India. He is a Cat ‘A’ qualified Hydrographer.

He was posted as the Defence Adviser to the Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi from Dec 2009 to June 2011. His last sea command was an OPV; SLNS Samudura in 2011-2012 and he was the Naval Assistant to the Commander of the Navy from 2012-2013. From 2013-2016 he was the Commandant of the Naval and Maritime Academy and in 2017 he completed study tenure at National Defence University, Beijing, China. From 2018-2019 he was the Director General Training. He has authored several articles on maritime issues and has presented papers at several academic and military forums. He had being invited to lecture at the Staff Colleges of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maritime Warfare Centre in Visakapatnam/India, NAVCIATTES in USA, in ASEAN Regional Forum/Surabaya and in University of Western Australia and at NMF/India.

Presently he is the Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Navy and Joint Chief Hydrographer to the Government of Sri Lanka & Chief Hydrographer of the Navy. He is married to Mrs Nishani and blessed with three children. Currently he is reading for his Doctorate.