Counter admiral

Counter admiral is a rank found in many navies of the world, but no longer used in English-speaking countries, where the equivalent rank is rear admiral. The term derives from the French contre-amiral. Depending on the country, it is either a one-star or two-star rank.

In modern navies that use it, rear (counter) admiral is generally, although not always, the lowest flag officer rank (in the German Navy, for instance, Flottillenadmiral ranks below Konteradmiral; in the Royal Canadian Navy, contre-amiral/rear admiral ranks above commodore).

French speaking countries

In France and other French speaking countries' navies the rank of Contre-amiral is used as the lowest flag officer. It is usually placed above ship-of-the-line captain (French: capitaine de vaisseau) and below vice admiral (French: vice-amiral).

Germany

Konteradmiral is a NATO OF-7 (two-star rank) of the Deutsche Marine (German Navy), equivalent to the Generalmajor ("major general") in the German Army and the German Air Force.

Nordic countries

The rank of counter admiral is used in all the Nordic countries.

Denmark and Norway

In 1771, the rank of Schout-bij-nacht was removed and replaced with the rank of counter admiral (Danish/Norwegian: kontreadmiral).

Finland

Counter admiral is the more direct translation of Finnish kontra-amiraali, a two-star rank used in the Finnish Navy and the Finnish Border Guard. However, it is usually translated as rear admiral in international use.

Sweden

Portuguese speaking countries

In the navies of Brazil and Angola the rank of contra-almirante is the lowest of the flag officer ranks. In the navies of Portugal and Mozambique the rank of contra-almirante is the second lowest, above that of comodoro (commodore).

Until the end of the 19th century, the present rank of contra-almirante was named chefe de esquadra (chief of squadron), both in the Portuguese and in the Brazilian navies.

Russia and other former communist countries

Kontr-admiral was the lowest flag officer rank of the Soviet Navy and is the lowest flag rank of the Russian Navy, similar to an OF-6 officer.

NATO code

While the rank of counter admiral is used in a number of NATO countries, it is ranked differently depending on the country.

NATO code Country English equivalent
UK US
OF-7 Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia Rear admiral Rear admiral
OF-6 Albania, France, Italy, Poland, Spain Commodore Rear admiral (lower half)

Gallery


This page was last updated at 2024-03-16 15:13 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari