Admiral (Sweden)


Admiral is a four-star commissioned naval officer rank in the Swedish Navy. Admiral ranks immediately above vice admiral and is equivalent to general.

History

In Sweden, the admiral's rank first appeared during the reign of Gustav I, who in 1522 gave it to Erik Fleming, a Council of the Realm. During Gustav's reign as king and throughout the latter part of the 16th century, the highest command of a fleet was led by a översteamiral, to whose assistant a underamiral was appointed. It was not until 1569 that a permanent översteamiral was appointed; In 1602 the title was exchanged for riksamiral. The first permanent underamiral was appointed in 1575; his office ceased in 1619. Vice admiral is first mentioned in 1577. The admirals of the Swedish Navy have, incidentally, been as follows: generalamiral, amiralgeneral, storamiral, överamiral, riksviceamiral, amiralgenerallöjtnant, amirallöjtnant, Rear admiral#Netherlands and konteramiral. As names for special positions, there has been: befälhavande amiral, skeppsgårdsamiral, holmamiral and varvsamiral.
Admiral is equivalent to the rank of general in the Swedish Army, the Swedish Air Force, the Swedish Coastal Artillery and as well as in the Swedish Amphibious Corps. Historically, during the 20th century, vice admirals were promoted one grade upon retirement to full four-star admiral. The last time this happened was in 1991 when vice admiral Bror Stefenson was promoted to admiral in connection with his retirement from the navy. According to current practice only royals and the Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, if he were to come from the Swedish Navy, can hold the rank of a full, four-star, admiral in Sweden.
Following a proposal from the Swedish Armed Forces, the Government of Sweden decides on employment as an admiral.
In everyday speech, admirals of all ranks are addressed as admirals.

Uniform

Shoulder mark

The shoulder mark of a Swedish admiral contains a 45 mm galloon m/51 and four 25 mm star m/30 in silver embroidery on a white background: The center distance between the stars on the shoulder mark must be 27 mm.

Sleeve insignia

A flag officer wears on the sleeves a 45 mm galloon and a rank insignia .

Hats

Peaked cap

A flag officer wears as embellishments a gold embroidered oak leaf wreath on the visor of the peaked cap. It also fitted with a hat badge and with a strap in form of a golden braid.

Side cap and winter hat

An officer wears a hat badge for the navy and another for amphibious units on the side cap and on the winter hat.

Personal flags

Admiral's command flag, which admirals of all ranks carry on ships, where they are as commanders. On a three-masted ship, an admiral's flag flies on top of the main mast. The command flag of an admiral is a double swallowtailed Swedish flag. In the first blue field 4 five-pointed white stars placed two over two.
The flag of the admiral is flown on ships of the navy, from which officer of the rank now mentioned exercises his command, or on which he travels in the service, but not on ships on which he is in the capacity of exercise leader.
A flag officer who holds the position of Supreme Commander, Chief of Operations, Chief of Navy, Chief of Maritime Component Command or naval force commander, may carry an admiral flag on a car in which the commander in question travels in uniform. On airplanes/helicopters, vice admirals may carry a command sign in the form of an image of an admiral flag.

Gun salute

When raising or lowering flags of the commander's, squadron, department or division commander, a gun salute is given with 17 rounds for admiral.

List of admirals

The following have been promoted to the rank of admiral in the Swedish Navy between 1900 and.
ImageCountryNameYear
promoted
BornDiedNotesRef
|1905sortname|Fredrik|von Otter