Fleet admiral

Fleet admiral insignia
FADM pin.	FADM sleeve stripe.
Stafleet pin and sleeve insignia, late 23rd century
File:Mirror adm.png
Terran Starfleet epaulet insignia (admiral and fleet admiral)

Fleet admiral is a military rank, the equivalent of which is used by the service organizations of many civilizations. As a traditional grade, fleet admiral is the most senior flag officer rank of a naval organization, above all the flag admiral grades save for commander-in-chief. In comparison to infantry ranking systems, this rank is equivalent to the most senior general rank.

In Starfleet, fleet admiral exists as a separate rank, but has also been used as a title awarded and referring to officers wearing insignia of vice admiral or admiral, such as Fleet Admiral Shanthi. (TNG: "Redemption II")

In these situations when an officer refers to an admiral as "fleet admiral" they could simply be calling them fleet admiral because they are acting as the head of a fleet. Some have suggested field promotion as another possibility.

Starfleet fleet admirals

The following admirals wore the insignia for the "fleet admiral" rank.

• Commander in chief named Bill
• Commander, Starfleet Harry Morrow
• Commander, Starfleet Cartwright
• Commander, Starfleet Robert Bennett
• Gardner (Gardner was fleet admiral in title, but his insignia were not clearly specified as signifying his grade)

The following vice admirals were referred to in title as "fleet admiral".

• Brackett
• Alynna Nechayev
• Shanthi

Other fleet admirals

• Krell, a Klingon admiral

Background

The first time that the rank of Fleet Admiral was mentioned in Star Trek was during TOS: "Space Seed" when Leonard McCoy, observing a dinner set for Khan Noonien Singh, commented that the ship must be expecting a Fleet Admiral for dinner. An actual Fleet Admiral was not seen on camera until the apperance of Fleet Admiral Morrow in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

At least two non-canon reference books reference a rank senior to Fleet Admiral, this being a rank known as Flag Admiral. A senior rank of Grand Admiral has also appeared in Star Trek comic books on occasion; however, the highest canon rank of Starfleet remains that of Fleet Admiral.

Currently, in the United States Navy, the rank of Fleet Admiral is inactive and has not been awarded since World War II. The rank is listed in Navy regulations as a "wartime position" and can only be presented by Congressional mandate.

This chart shows only general equivalencies based on the ranks used by many governments on Earth, as well as the rest of the galaxy.