Admiral is a rank of flag officer in naval services and space forces, such as Starfleet and the Romulan Star Navy. In the most basic officer rank schemes, admirals are a grade higher than a captain and are the highest possible grades in most rank structures, although some organizations will use the rank of commodore in between captains and admirals, which is also used as a title for lower ranking commanders who are nominally in charge of others of the same rank. The admiral rank is roughly equivalent with the authority of a general of military forces. The Klingon Defense Force has an admiral rank, referred to as 'aj in Klingonese. In the Cardassian Union, legate is a Cardassian flag officer rank title which, in translation to Federation Standard, is approximately equivalent to senior admirals.
In military parlance, it is often acceptable and normal to refer to any grade of admiral simply as "admiral" in most forms of address. In order to establish a hierarchy of command, numerous grades exist in various different systems to distinguish admirals from each other.
Grades of admiral[]
- In approximate order:
- superadmiral, grand admiral, five star admiral, fleet admiral
- four star admiral
- vice admiral, three star admiral
- rear admiral, two star admiral
- rear admiral lower half, one star admiral