Vice admiral (Sweden)

Vice admiral (VAdm) (Swedish: Viceamiral, Vam) is a three-star commissioned naval officer rank in the Swedish Navy. Vice admiral ranks above rear admiral and below admiral. Vice admiral is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant general.[3]

This article is about a Swedish Navy rank. For other countries that use a Vice Admiral rank, see Vice Admiral.
Vice admiral
Flag of the vice admiral, Swedish Navy.
Shoulder mark of a Swedish three-star vice admiral.
Sleeve insignia of a Swedish three-star vice admiral.
Country Sweden
Service branchSwedish Navy
AbbreviationVam (Swedish),[1] VAdm (English)[2]
RankThree-star[lower-alpha 1]
NATO rank codeOF-08
Non-NATO rankO-9
Formation1575
Next higher rankAdmiral
Next lower rankRear admiral
Equivalent ranksLieutenant 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 ("colonel admiral"), 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 ("Admiral of the Realm"). 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 ("general admiral"), amiralgeneral ("admiral general"), storamiral ("grand admiral"), överamiral, riksviceamiral ("Vice Admiral of the Realm"), amiralgenerallöjtnant ("admiral lieutenant general"), amirallöjtnant ("lieutenant admiral"), schoutbynacht and konteramiral ("rear admiral").[4] Vice admirals were in ancient times called lieutenant admirals.[5] Between 1680 and 1771, vice admiral ranked between admiral and schoutbynacht.[6] It was then replaced by rear admiral.

When the vice admiral was commander of the squadrons, he carried the Swedish naval ensign with two white stars in the lower blue field as a sign of command.[3] Vice admiral is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant general[3] in the Swedish Army, the Swedish Air Force, the Swedish Coastal Artillery (until 2000) and as well as in the Swedish Amphibious Corps (from 2000). Historically, the Chief of the Navy (1936–1994) and the Chief of Navy Staff (1994–1998) positions was a flag officer with the rank of vice admiral.

Following a proposal from the Swedish Armed Forces, the Government of Sweden decides on employment as a vice admiral.[7]

In everyday speech, vice admirals are addressed as admirals.[8][9]

Uniform

Shoulder mark

The shoulder mark of a Swedish vice admiral contains a 45 mm galloon m/51 and three[lower-alpha 2] 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.[10]

Sleeve insignia

A flag officer wears on the sleeves a 45 mm galloon (GALON M/51 45MM K) and a rank insignia (GRADBETECKNING M/02 TILL ÄRM FLOTTAN) (round loop, the Amphibious Corps has a pointed loop in form of a grenade).[11]

  • Sleeve insignia for a vice admiral (2003–present)
  • Sleeve insignia for a vice admiral (1972–2003)
  • Sleeve insignia for a vice admiral (1878–1972)
  • Vice admiral Åke Lindemalm (right) with old sleeve insignia for a vice admiral (1878–1972)

Peaked cap

A flag officer wears as embellishments a gold embroidered oak leaf wreath (known as scrambled egg) on the visor of the peaked cap (skärmmössa m/48). It also fitted with a hat badge (mössmärke m/78 off för flottan) and with a strap in form of a golden braid.[12]

Side cap and winter hat

An officer wears a hat badge (mössmärke m/78 off) for the navy and another (mössmärke m/87 off) for amphibious units on the side cap (båtmössa m/48) and on the winter hat (vintermössa m/87).[13]

Personal flags

Admiral's command flag, which admirals of all ranks carry on ships, where they are as commanders. On a three-masted ship, a vice admiral's flag flies on the top of the fore-mast (admiral's flies on top of the main mast and rear admiral's on top of the mizzen-mast).[14] The command flag of a vice admiral (and a lieutenant general) is a double swallowtailed Swedish flag. In the first blue field 3 five-pointed white stars placed one over two[15] (before 1972 by two in the same place).

The flag of the vice admiral (and admiral and rear 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.[16]

A flag officer (for example vice admiral) 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 (flag officers) may carry a command sign in the form of an image of an admiral flag.[17]

  • Vice admiral flag (1972–present)
  • Vice admiral flag (1905–1972)
  • Vice admiral command flag (1875–1905)
  • Vice admiral command flag (1815–1844)

Gun salute

When raising or lowering flags of the commander's, squadron, department or division commander, a gun salute is given with 15 rounds for vice admiral (17 for admiral and 13 for rear admiral).[18]

List of vice admirals

  This along with the * (asterisk) indicates that the officer was subsequently promoted to admiral.
  This along with the ^ (arrowhead) indicates that the officer is a currently serving vice admiral.

The following people have held the rank of vice admiral in the Swedish Navy from 1900–present:

Name Year of promotion Senior command(s) or appointment(s) in rank Notes
Hjalmar af Klintberg*1901Chief of the Fleet Staff (1889–1903)
Carl Hjulhammar1911[lower-alpha 3]
Wilhelm Dyrssen*1901Inspector of the Navy's Exercises at Sea (1907–16)
Carl Olsen1908Chief of the Royal Swedish Naval Materiel Administration (1905–10), Highest Commander of the Coastal Fleet (1906–08)
Ludvig Sidner1911Station commander in Karlskrona (1910–13), Chief of the Naval Staff (1913–16)
Carl August Ehrensvärd*1917Inspector of the Navy's Exercises at Sea (1916–18), Highest Commander of the Coastal Fleet (1919)
Gustaf Dyrssen1917Chief of the Royal Swedish Naval Materiel Administration (1910–20)[19]
Gustaf Lagercrantz1919[lower-alpha 3]
Henning von Krusenstierna*1923Chief of the Naval Staff (1916–27)
Carl Alarik Wachtmeister1925Station commander in Stockholm (1923–25)
Henry Lindberg1925[lower-alpha 3][20]
Fredrik Riben1930Station commander in Stockholm (1926–33)[21]
John Schneidler1932Chief of the Royal Swedish Naval Materiel Administration (1925–33)[22]
Otto Lybeck*1932Chief of the Naval Staff (1927–36)
Charles de Champs1934East Coast Naval District (1933–36), Chief of the Naval Staff (1936–37), Chief of the Navy (1936–39)
Harald Åkermark1934Chief of the Royal Swedish Naval Materiel Administration (1933–38), West Coast Naval District (1939–42)
Fabian Tamm*1939Chief of the Navy (1939–45)
Claës Lindsström1942[lower-alpha 3]
Hans Simonsson1945[lower-alpha 3]
Helge Strömbäck1945Chief of the Navy (1945–53)
Gunnar Bjurner1947[lower-alpha 3]
Gösta Ehrensvärd1950[lower-alpha 3]
Stig H:son Ericson*1953Chief of the Navy (1953–61)
Erik Anderberg1957[lower-alpha 3]
Erik Samuelson1958[lower-alpha 3]
Åke Lindemalm*1961Chief of the Navy (1961–70)
Gunnar Jedeur-Palmgren1962[lower-alpha 3]
Erik af Klint1966[lower-alpha 3]
Bertil Berthelsson1967[lower-alpha 3]
Oscar Krokstedt1968Southern Military District (1968–72)
Sigurd Lagerman1968[lower-alpha 3]
Bengt Lundvall*1970Chief of the Navy (1970–78)
Holger Henning1970[lower-alpha 3]
Einar Blidberg1971[lower-alpha 3]
Karl Segrell1971[lower-alpha 3]
Bengt Schuback1978Chief of the Defence Staff (1978–82), Southern Military District (1982–84), Chief of the Navy (1984–90)
Bror Stefenson*1982Chief of the Defence Staff (1982–87), Swedish National Defence College (1987–88), Eastern Military District (1988–91), Commandant General in Stockholm (1988–91)
Dick Börjesson1990Chief of the Navy (1990–94), Middle Military District (1994–98), Commandant General in Stockholm (1994–98)
Peter Nordbeck1994Chief of Navy Staff (1994–98), Naval Command (1994–98)
Frank Rosenius1998Deputy Supreme Commander (1998–2000)
Jan Thörnqvist2016Chief of Joint Operations (2016–2020), Commandant General in Stockholm (2019–20)
Jonas Haggren^2019Chief of Defence Staff (2018–), Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters (2018–), Swedish Armed Forces Special Forces (2018–), Commandant General in Stockholm (2018–)

Footnotes
  1. Vice admiral was a two-star rank until 1972 and admiral was the three-star rank in the Swedish Armed Forces rank structure.
  2. Three stars has been used for an vice admiral since 1972. Before that it was two stars.
  3. Upon retirement.

References

Notes
  1. "Försvarsmaktens föreskrifter om personaltjänst (FFS 2019:6)" (PDF) (in Swedish). Swedish Armed Forces. 2019-12-02. p. 3. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  2. "Försvarsmaktens gemensamma identitet – direktiv för användandet av Försvarsmaktens namn, profil och bild" (PDF). 1.3 (in Swedish). Swedish Armed Forces. 2013-09-16. p. 66. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  3. Rosén & Westrin 1893, p. 850
  4. Meijer 1904, pp. 851–852
  5. Fåhræus 1872, p. 155
  6. Unger 1909, p. 301
  7. "Förordning om ändring i förordningen (2000:555) med instruktion för Försvarsmakten" (PDF) (in Swedish). Swedish Code of Statutes. 20 June 2005. p. 2. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  8. Etikett och god ton: Praktisk handbok i sättet att uppföra sig. 1 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Åhlén & Åkerlund. 1932. p. 130. SELIBR 1353820.
  9. Handbok: parad 6: traditionsvård : H PARAD 6 2016 (PDF) (in Swedish). Stockholm: Försvarsmakten. 2017. p. 31. SELIBR 22459606.
  10. Laestadius 2015, pp. 460–461
  11. Laestadius 2015, pp. 449–450
  12. Laestadius 2015, pp. 422–424
  13. Laestadius 2015, p. 424
  14. Stenfelt 1920, p. 11
  15. Braunstein 2004, p. 111
  16. Stenfelt 1920, p. 640
  17. Reglemente: parad 2: flaggor, fälttecken & heraldik : R PARAD 2 2017 (PDF) (in Swedish). Stockholm: Försvarsmakten. 2017. pp. 22, 68. SELIBR 21483386.
  18. Stenfelt 1920, p. 454
  19. Lindblad 1924, p. 165
  20. Wedin 1980–1981, p. 243
  21. Dahl & Bohman 1949, p. 273
  22. Vem är det 1940, p. 729.

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