Starfleet Flag Officers

Starfleet Flag Officers are the senior-most Starfleet officers, so-named for the old Earth naval tradition of hoisting a command flag to designate the lead ship in a group of ships, the flagship. Flag Officers in Starfleet command groups of ships (from task groups to entire fleets) and important starbases, and also serve in staff roles at various levels of the Starfleet hierarchy. There are five flag officer ranks.

Fleet Admiral

Fleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy is the current Commander, Starfleet, and one of the few fleet admirals on active duty.

Fleet Admiral is the highest rank in Starfleet, held by an extremely select few, including the Commander-in-Chief, the Chief of Starfleet Operations, the Starfleet Chief of Staff, and the most senior commanders of the most important Numbered Fleets. Promotion to this rank requires a nomination by the President of the United Federation of Planets and confirmation by the Federation Council. As a matter of course, only members of the Command Division are ever promoted to this rank. As a title, "fleet admiral" can also refer to an admiral in command of a fleet, and so it is often used to refer to admirals and vice admirals.

Notable Fleet Admirals
Name	Position	Species	Status
Fleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy	Commander-in-Chief, Starfleet	Human	Canon
Fleet Admiral Teylas Ramar	Commander, Fourth Fleet	Bolian	Member
Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Wolf	Flag Officer, Starfleet Command	Human	Member

Admiral

Admiral Jean-Luc Picard is the current Chancellor of Starfleet Academy, and one of the most experienced and decorated Starfleet officers in history.

Admiral is the second most senior flag rank, held by many of the Starfleet Joint Chiefs, who head fleet-level departments, as well as the commanders and deputy commanders of many of Starfleet's numbered fleets. Officers of this rank also are occasionally assigned to command extremely important starbases or sectors within the Federation.

Notable Admirals
Name	Position	Species	Status
Admiral Jean-Luc Picard	Chancellor, Starfleet Academy	Synthetic	Canon
Admiral Liam Dahlgren	Deputy Commander, Fourth Fleet	Human	Member
Admiral Vailis	Commanding Officer, Starbase 38 Director, Delta Exploration Initiative	Vulcan	Fleet NPC

Vice Admiral

Alynna Nechayev is an example of a vice admiral who was referred to as a fleet admiral, as she commanded a fleet.

Vice Admiral is the third most senior flag officer rank and it is held by officers in a wide range of positions, ranging from the command of smaller fleets to large starbases to departments within Starfleet Command. Vice admirals are often assigned as very senior field commanders, such as Vice Admiral William Ross who had operational control over much of Starfleet's assets during the Dominion War.

Notable Vice Admirals
Name	Position	Species	Status
Vice Admiral Alexander Beckett	Director of Fourth Fleet Intelligence	Human	Member
Vice Admiral Thomas Belvedere	Commanding Officer, Starbase Bravo	Human	Member
Vice Admiral Aubrey Seagraves	Flag Officer, Fourth Fleet Command	Human	Member

Rear Admiral

Rear Admiral Erik Pressman was a former starship captain who advanced to the upper echelons of Starfleet Intelligence.

Rear Admiral is the fourth most senior flag officer rank, and the first rank referred to as "admiral." Officers with this rank are much more common than more senior flag officers, and they hold a wide variety of roles across the fleet, but especially commanding starbases or divisions of numbered fleets.

Notable Rear Admirals
Name	Position	Species	Status
Rear Admiral Zack Marshall-Bennett	Director of Fourth Fleet Operations	Human	Member
Rear Admiral Ezel Virem	Director of Fourth Fleet Engineering	Trill (Unjoined)	Member
Rear Admiral Robert Dowd	Director of Fourth Fleet Communications	Human	Member
Rear Admiral T'Vrell	Staff Judge Advocate, Fourth Fleet	Vulcan	Member

Commodore

General Nedar of the Romulan Tal Shiar and Zhat Vash successfully infiltrated Starfleet Intelligence and rose to the rank of commodore under the assumed name Oh, but was exposed in 2399.

Commodore is the lowest flag officer rank, ranking above all line officers and beneath all admirals. This is the last rank at which an officer may regularly maintain the command of a starship, though this is increasingly rare in Starfleet. Officers of this rank are also senior task force commanders, staff officers within numbered fleets and at Starfleet Command, as well as the commanding officer of a majority of Starfleet's large starbases, which also gives them authority over the sector of space containing their base.

Notable Commodores
Name	Position	Species	Status
Commodore Maxwell Stafford	Chief of Staff, Fourth Fleet	Human	Member
Commodore Uzoma Ekwueme	Commander, Fourth Fleet Expeditionary Group	Human	Fleet NPC
Commodore Py'Tellan	Commanding Officer, Deep Space 17	Tyrellian	Task Force NPC
Commodore Aben Ch'Thobar	Commanding Officer, Deep Space 47	Andorian	Task Force NPC
Commodore Jalian	Commanding Officer, Starbase 72	Saurian	Task Force NPC
Commodore Ciffao Tharc	Commanding Officer, Starbase 86	Tellarite	Task Force NPC
Commodore Ethysaan Ch'chirrit	Commanding Officer, Starbase 93	Andorian	Task Force NPC

Flag Officers In-Play

There are several fleet and task force-level supporting characters (NPCs) available for use in your stories. Each task force has a commodore NPC, and RPGs have access to one of their own. The purpose of these characters is to provide you a way of giving your characters orders without needing to ask for joint writing with a staff member, though you're welcome to ask other members to collaborate in that way too! This is meant to help you avoid creating your own flag officers (unless you have flag rank yourself) and to maintain continuity of the organization of the Fourth Fleet.
Flag officers generally do not command starships, especially those ranking above commodore. Their flagships would be commanded by a flag captain, often a relatively junior captain who would handle the day-to-day administrative responsibilities of commanding a starship, but taking their orders directly from the flag officer.