Member states of NATO members and three former Yugoslav republics) from 12 March 1999 to 5 June 2017. NATO has added new members seven times since its founding in 1949, and since 2017 NATO has had 29 members. Twelve countries were part of the founding of NATO: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1952, Greece and Turkey became members of the Alliance, joined later by West Germany (in 1955) and Spain (in 1982). In 1990, with the reunification of Germany, NATO grew to include the former country of East Germany. Between
Henry Burrell (admiral) raised to vice admiral on 24 February and became First Naval Member, the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS). He succeeded Vice Admiral Sir Roy Dowling. As CNS, Vice Admiral Burrell had to contend with a threat by Defence Minister Athol Townley to disband the Navy's fixed-wing Fleet Air Arm capability by 1963, but gained approval for a major vessel re-equipment drive that was to include new submarines, destroyers, minesweepers, and auxiliaries. This led among other things to the procurement of British s, selected by Burrell when his original preference for an Australian-built craft proved too expensive, as well as