Starfleet Ranks & Rates
2278-2350

Commissioned officers
Fleet Admiral		FADM Morrow Image courtesy of The IDIC Page
Admiral		nameless ADM Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Vice Admiral		nameless VADM Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Rear Admiral		RADM James T. Kirk Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Commodore		nameless CDRE Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Captain		CAPT Clark Terrell Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Commander		CDR Uhura Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Lieutenant Commander		LCDR Dmitri Valtane VOY Flashback
Lieutenant		LT Ian Andrew Troi TNG The Dark Page
Lieutenant Junior Grade		LTJG Richard Castillo TNG Yesterday's Enterprise
Ensign		ENS Marta Batanides TNG Tapestry
Enlisted personnel
Master Chief Petty Officer		nameless MCPO Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Senior Chief Petty Officer		nameless SCPO Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Chief Petty Officer		nameless CPO Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Petty Officer 1st class
Petty Officer 2nd class
Able Seaman		AB Samno Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Flag rank stripes

In the early 2280s, all flag officers wore the same flag rank stripe. It was later replaced by a more complex system.		RADM James T. Kirk Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Commodore 3/8” wide multicoloured braid No lozenge
Rear Admiral 3/4” wide metallic gold base braid 3/8” wide multicoloured braid One black and silver lozenge		RADM James T. Kirk Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Vice Admiral 3/4” wide metallic gold base braid 3/8” wide multicoloured braid Two black and silver lozenges		nameless Andorian VADM Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Admiral 1” wide dark red base braid 3/4” wide metallic gold braid 3/8” wide multicoloured braid Three black and silver lozenges
Fleet Admiral 1 1/4” wide bordered base braid 1” wide dark red braid 3/4” wide metallic gold braid 3/8” wide multicoloured braid Bordered base braid with dark red braid, gold braid and narrow Four black and silver lozenges		FADM Morrow Image courtesy of The IDIC Page
Fleet Admiral serving as Starfleet Commander-in-Chief 1 1/4” wide bordered base braid 1” wide dark red braid 2x 3/8” wide multicoloured braid Five black and silver lozenges

Jacket Flap

	Ensign - Captain
	Commodore - Admiral
	Fleet Admiral
	Fleet Admiral serving as Starfleet Commander-in-Chief

Pants Stripe

Enlisted personnel
	2” wide black stripe from armpit to pants cuff.
Commissioned officers
	½” wide stripe colour of division set on 2” wide black up to rank of Commodore. Command officers do not have a white stripe but a tunic red one.
	Commodore to rank of Admiral wear a 1” wide tunic red stripe with a narrow gold soutache in middle set on a 2¼” wide black self band.
	Fleet Admiral adds one more narrow gold soutache.
	A Fleet Admiral serving as Starfleet Commander-in-Chief has three narrow gold soutaches.

Annotations & Trivia:

• Admiral's rank insignia are worn on shoulder strap and above flag rank stripe. Officer's rank insignia are worn on shoulder strap and above division band. Enlisted rate insignia are also worn above division band. Flag rank emblems may vary in size according to use. This can be observed in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, where the C-in-C's sleeve rank insignia is by far bigger than the shoulder strap insignia.

• This rank system is infamous for spawning at least eight different (and incorrect) variants, including rank schemes by Trek capacities such as Shane Johnson and Mike Okuda. Up to this date, no printed official reference material managed to reproduce them correctly.
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country introduced a distinction between normal fleet admirals and the fleet admiral serving as Starfleet Commander-in-Chief (sometimes also refered to as Starfleet Chief of Staff or Starfleet Commander):
  1. The C-in-C wears a different flag rank stripe. Most notable is the addition of a fifth lozenge.
  2. There is a gap between the two gold soutaches seaming the black wool border of the jacket flap on the C-in-C's uniform.
  3. The C-in-C's pants stripe features 3 instead of 2 gold soutaches.
  4. The piece of cloth on which the sleeve rank insignia is set on top has gold seaming on the C-in-C's uniform.
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home marked the last confirmed appearance of Starfleet commodores. Of course, it is very well within the realms of possibility that commodores attended the Starfleet Command meeting in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, however, no visual evidence has emerged up to now to back this up.

• Initially, Robert Flechter either forgot or found it unnecessary to create a rank insignia for lieutenant commanders. Later, he corrected this oversight and a rank insigna was introduced for the first time in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The insignia gained notoriety when it was incorrectly used for Lt. Valeris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and for Lt. JG Janice Rand in VOY Flashback.

nameless LCDR Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

LCDR Dmitri Valtane VOY Flashback

Lt. Valeris Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

LTJG Janice Rand VOY Flashback

• There's an urban legend circling the net claiming that the ensign pin was specifically created for the TNG episode "Tapestry". However, this is not true as the pin design was included in Robert Flechter's original notes and was used on some extras in the TOS movies.

• Robert Fletcher specifically stated in his notes, that warrant ranks do not exist in this time period.
• This was the first and only time in Trek's history that a complete set of rate pins for enlisted personnel was devised and introduced.
• It's quite difficult to discern whether a petty officer is 1^st or 2^nd class, hence the lack of illustrative material.
• Some fans have complained about the term "Able Seaman" for the lowest enlisted rate as being anachronistic for a space-going organisation. However, the term "Rear Admiral" has also managed to survive into the modern age, even though the term dates back to a time when a rear admiral was commanding ships in the rear of a naval squadron, which no longer applies for today. The term "Able Seaman" is borrowed from the 18th century Royal Navy and is still used by Commonwealth navies such as the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy.
• Unclear is what Robert Fletcher had in mind for officer cadets (midshipmen). Saavik and other officer cadets appeared in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan with the rank insignia of Lieutenant JG and Ensign. This can be interpreted as them being either Cadet-Lieutenants JG/Ensigns or already graduated officers, who had enrolled at the Academy for additional command/engineering training. On a related, yet ultimately irrelevant, side note, the Interplay PC game "Starfleet Academy" featured officer cadets wearing a number of squeaks, ranging from one to four mirroring their Academy years, on their collars similar to cadets of the 24th century. Unfortunately, those cadets wore enlisted jumpsuits and the squeaks appear to be silver enlisted commendation markers.

• Yet another mystery is the nature of the rate pin worn by enlisted trainees.

• The flag rank stripe is a distinctive band of braid worn on the left sleeve of the uniform above the division band and below the rank insignia.
• The flag rank stripe used in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan for Kirk's uniform is actually uniform braid from the original Battlestar Galactica TV show.