Rear Admiral Erhan AYDIN was born in İstanbul in 1972. He graduated from Naval High School in 1990 and from Turkish Naval Academy in 1994 as an Ensign.

After having served as Division Officer and Department Head onboard frigates TCG TURGUTREİS, TCG ADATEPE, TCG YAVUZ and TCG SALİHREİS from 1994 to 2007; he was assigned as the Executive Officer between 2008-2010 and as the Commanding Officer in 2012-2013 onboard TCG SALİHREİS

He earned his MS degree in Operations Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey/CA-USA in 2000 and graduated from Turkish Naval War College/İstanbul in 2004.

His shore duties include Staff Public Affairs Officer (SPAO) in NATO Standing Maritime Group-2 (SNMG-2) between 2007-2008, Exercise and Preparation Section Head in NATO Joint Force Command (JFC) Naples/ITALY between 2010-2012, Branch Head in Tactical Development, Doctrine and Analysis Center/Gölcük between 2013-2016 and the Commander of the same Analysis Center between 2016-2017.

Rear Admiral AYDIN served as the Commandant of Midshipmen at the Turkish Naval Academy between 2017-2019 and he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral (LH) in 2019. Commanding the Turkish Naval Academy between 2019-2022, he was later promoted to Rear Admiral (UH) in August 2022.

After his promotion, Rear Admiral Erhan AYDIN served as the Deputy Director at Defense and Security General Directorate in Ministry of National Defense HQ/Ankara between 2022-2023, Commander of the Training and Education Command between 2023-2024 and Commander of Turkish Mine Group between 2024-2025.

Rear Admiral AYDIN has now been serving as the Deputy Rector at National Defense University in İstanbul, starting in August 2025.

He is married to Mrs. Zeynep AYDIN and they have 2 daughters, Selin and Nil Petek.

Rear Admiral AYDIN speaks English.