Myanmar Armed Forces Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include th ...

, there are two different ranks, one higher than another, but both designated as

four-star rank A four-star rank is the rank of any four-star officer described by the NATO OF-9 code. Four-star officers are often the most senior commanders in the armed services, having ranks such as (full) admiral, (full) general, colonel general, army gen ...

s. * (Vice-Senior General), a rank between five-star rank of

Senior general Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used Suffix (name)#Generational titles, as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refe ...

and four-star rank of General/Admiral, but designated as a four-star rank. * (^{Army and Air Force translation:}

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

or ^{Navy translation:}

Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

), the actual four-star rank.

Vice-senior general

"Vice-senior general" ( my, ဒုတိယဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီး, dautaiya bauilaʻ khayupaʻ mahūʺkarīʺ) is the second highest

rank Rank is the relative position, value, worth, complexity, power, importance, authority, level, etc. of a person or object within a ranking, such as: Level or position in a hierarchical organization * Academic rank * Diplomatic rank * Hierarchy * H ...

. It is held by the person appointed to both

Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services The Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services ( my, ဒုတိယတပ်မတော်ကာကွယ်ရေးဦးစီးချုပ်) is the second highest military rank in the Tatmadaw, the armed forces of Myanmar. The Deput ...

and Commander-in-Chief (Army). Since 2012, it can also be held by the

Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services The commander-in-chief of Defence Services () is the commanding officer of the Tatmadaw, the armed forces of Myanmar. Since a state of emergency was declared following the 2021 military coup d'état, the commander-in-chief has been the highest ...

if he has not yet been promoted to

. It is between the five-star rank of

and the four-star rank of General or Admiral, thus being a unique rank existing only in

. The rank medals of both Vice-Senior general and General/Admiral have the same observe; both with golden logo of Armed Forces and four golden stars overheading it, but the rank medal of Senior general has a green stripe in addition to that of General/Admiral. Thus, it can be assumed as a higher variant of four-star rank. The flag of

also confirms that.

Insignia

History

When the five-star rank

was created above the four-star rank

, there was no Vice senior general or similar rank between them. In 1990, General

Saw Maung Saw Maung ( my, စောမောင်, ; 5 December 1928 – 24 July 1997) was a Burmese army general and statesman who served as Chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in Myanmar and Prime Minister of Burma from 19 ...

promoted himself directly to Senior general, his deputy: Lieutenant General

Than Shwe Than Shwe ( my, သန်းရွှေ, ; born 2 February 1933 or 3 May 1935) is a Burmese strongman politician who was the head of state of Myanmar from 1992 to 2011 as Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). During this ...

to General, and Brigadier General

Maung Aye Vice Senior General Maung Aye ( my, မောင်အေး ; born 25 December 1937) is a Burmese military official who was Vice Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the ruling military junta of Myanmar, from July 1993 to ...

to Major general. In 1993, General Than Shwe was promoted directly to Senior general, and Major General Maung Aye was promoted to Lieutenant general and became deputy of Than Shwe. Lieutenant General Maung Aye was promoted to General in 1994, and then Vice-senior general in 2002. Thus, he became the first person to hold the rank of Vice senior general.

List of rank holders

General/Admiral

"" (

romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

: bauilaʻ khayupaʻ karīʺ) is the third highest

, and traditionally the highest rank that a personnel from

Myanmar Navy The Myanmar Navy ( my, တပ်မတော် (ရေ); ) is the naval warfare branch of the armed forces of Myanmar. With 24,000 personnel on duty, the navy operates more than 150 vessels. Prior to 1988, the navy was small, and its role in c ...

and

Myanmar Air Force The Myanmar Air Force ( my, တပ်မတော် (လေ), ), known until 1989 as the Burmese Air Force, is the aerial branch of Myanmar's armed forces, the Tatmadaw. The primary mission of the Myanmar Air Force (MAF) since its inception ha ...

can get. It is a

four-star general A four-star rank is the rank of any four-star officer described by the Ranks and insignia of NATO, NATO OF-9 code. Four-star officers are often the most senior commanders in the armed services, having ranks such as (full) admiral, (full) general ...

rank. The rank's Burmese title and insignia is the same for all branches. But Myanmar Navy uses different English translation, to be harmonized with the naval terms. "" is translated as "

" for army and air force, and as "

" for navy. Since 2011, the rank "" is designated to be held by the persons in following appointments. Beside these appointments, the Armed Forces personnels appointed as Union Ministers in the government can also hold this rank. Currently, the Union Ministers of the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

and the Ministry of Transport and Communications are General and Admiral respectively.

Insignia

References

{{reflist Four-star officers Military ranks of Myanmar