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From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

Admiral is the highest military rank in most navies. It also may refer to the highest group of ranks (i.e., "general officer", sometimes interchanged with the naval term "flag officer"). Some South American navies, among others, have only one rank of admiral

In the NATO designation system (STANAG 2116),^[1] it is level OF-9, which is equivalent to the ground/air forces rank of general. The next lower rank is "vice admiral". While some navies have a higher grade of "admiral of the fleet" or "fleet admiral", they are no longer used in Western armies. In the U.S. system, however, "admiral" it is one grade higher than NATO; a U.S. admiral is officer grade O-10, not O-9.

In modern militaries, typical command assignments at this level would be or a very high level of staff responsibilities, including being the senior officer of a service or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (or national equivalent) The commanders of U.S. Unified Combatant Commands are generals or admirals. Typical modern assignments for an admiral not commanding operational fores include, in the U.S., the Director of National Intelligence, a major support or training/readiness organization such as the Pacific Fleet (above the numbered operational fleets), or Chief of Naval Operations.

While there are national differences, there are usually four grades of general officer, possibly with a higher rank given rarely and only in wartime.

• Fleet Admiral, Admiral of the fleet; rarely used
• Admiral
• Vice admiral
• Rear admiral
• Commodore (some navies, especially the U.S., treat "commodore" as a temporary rank, and have "Rear Admirals of the Upper Half" and "Rear Admirals of the Lower Half", who wear the same insignia as a rear admiral. Periodically, in the U.S., the other military services scream loudly enough that the "one-star" commodore rank is reinstituted. When that happens, a naval officer of commodore grade no longer wears insignia that appears higher than another one-star of equivalent seniority).

Insignia

Many countries follow U.S. or British usages.

References