Vice admiral pips on Matthew Dougherty's collar.
Vice admiral (also known as three star admiral) is a rank of flag officer in naval services and space forces, most notably Earth Starfleet and its Federation counterpart. Vice admiral is the midlevel flag officer rank, a grade higher than a rear admiral and a grade below four star admiral and other admiral grades in most rank structures. This rank is roughly equivalent with the authority of a lieutenant general of military forces. (ST reference: The Star Trek Encyclopedia)
In military parlance, is it acceptable and normal to refer to a vice admiral simply as "admiral" in most forms of address.
In the Starfleet uniform insignia introduced in the mid-24th century, a vice admiral wore a triangular rank braid with two pips underneath as their service uniform rank insignia. (TNG episode: "Conspiracy")
- The correlation between this third admiral rank and the uniform insignia worn in TNG season 1 is because other admirals were shown wearing lower rank insignia, and the single braid insignia was the most basic one shown.
In a redesign of the admiral's service uniforms of 2365 and 2366, a new insignia of three gold pips enclosed in a rectangular gold border was worn by vice admirals, showing the origin of the "three star" name. This insignia continued into later uniform designs of the 2370s. (ST reference: The Star Trek Encyclopedia; TNG episode: "The Measure of a Man")
Vice admiral insignia[]
| Starfleet vice admiral insignia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| era | general wear | command division | operations division | sciences division | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| command | tactical/military | flight-engineering (admin, pilot, engineer) |
security | special services | sci-ops (ops, sci & tac ops) |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2160s) (insignia for all flag grades) |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2250s) (insignia for all flag grades) |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) |  |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2270s) (epaulet insignia for all admiral grades) |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2270s-2350s) |  |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2350s-2366) |  |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2366-2373) | 
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2373-2386) |  |
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2386-2400s) |  |
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Alternate vice admiral insignia[]
| Starfleet alternate vice admiral insignia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| era | command division | operations division | sciences division | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Federation Starfleet ranks (2250s) alt | 
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| Federation Starfleet ranks (2386-2410) alt |  |
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Positions and lists[]
[]
Earth Starfleet[]
Federation Starfleet[]
- Aaron (2360s)
- Matthew Dougherty
- Fitzpatrick
- Rhonda S. Halloran
- Jeremiah Hayes
- Kathryn Janeway
- Yuri Kuznetsov
- James Leyton
- Mamoru Nakamura
- Alynna Nechayev (2360s)
- Owen Paris
- Christopher Pike (Kelvin timeline)
- Richardson
- Vaughan Rittenhouse
- William Ross
- Srrel
- Zach Warner
Appendices[]
Connections[]
| Enlisted ranks | Commissioned ranks | Flag ranks | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earth SF | CREW | PO2
|
CPO
|
ENS | LT | CMDR | CAPT
|
CDORE | RADM / 2ADM | VADM / 3ADM | 4ADM | FADM / 5ADM
| ||||
| Starfleet & SFMC | ENS JG
|
LT JG | LT | LT CMDR | CDR | CDORE
| ||||||||||
| PVT | CPL | SGT
|
SUBLT
2ND LT |
1ST LT | CAPT | MAJOR | LT COL | COL | BRIG | GEN | ||||||
Background[]
US insignia.
The United States rank scheme that Starfleet was adapted from is also the origination of the insignia, background information, and alternate name for this rank. In the United States armed forces, vice admirals of the US Navy wear a pin insignia of three stars on their uniforms and hold an officer grade equivalent to a lieutenant general of other services.
In ST video game: Conquest, vice admiral is used for Starfleet commanders who have completed their rear admiral experience points in Federation gameplay, with the graphic reflecting the "three-star" rank insignia dating back to the US military forces and the Earth Starfleet. The game proceeds these characters to admiral after their vice admiral experience points are complete.
External links[]
- Vice admiral article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.