See also: Military ranks of Myanmar. In Myanmar Armed Forces, there are two different ranks, one higher than another, but both designated as four-star ranks.
| Seniority in Armed Forces | Burmese title | English title | Rank insignia | Golden strap [1] [2] | Rank medal [3] | Car insignia | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| for Army and Air Force | ||||||||
| 2. | Vice-senior general | |||||||
| 3. | General | Admiral | ||||||
"Vice-senior general" (Burmese: ဒုတိယဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီး|dautaiya bauilaʻ khayupaʻ mahūʺkarīʺ) is the second highest rank in Myanmar Armed Forces. It is held by the person appointed to both Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services and Commander-in-Chief (Army). Since 2012, it can also be held by the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services if he has not yet been promoted to Senior general.
It is between the five-star rank of Senior general and the four-star rank of General or Admiral, thus being a unique rank existing only in Myanmar Armed Forces. The rank medals of both Vice-Senior general and General/Admiral have the same obverse; 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 Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services also confirms that.
When the five-star rank Senior general was created above the four-star rank General, there was no Vice-senior general or similar rank between them. In 1990, General Saw Maung promoted himself directly to Senior general,[6] [7] his deputy: Lieutenant General Than Shwe to General,[7] and Brigadier General Maung Aye to Major general.[8] In 1993, General Than Shwe was promoted directly to Senior general,[7] and Major General Maung Aye was promoted to Lieutenant general and became deputy of Than Shwe.[8]
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.
| No. | Photo | Name | Date of promotion from previous rank | Date of promotion to next rank or retirement | Remark | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Maung Aye | 2002 | 30 March 2011 | Promoted from General. Retired. | ||
| 2. | Min Aung Hlaing | March 2012[9] | March 2013[10] [11] | Promoted from General. Promoted to Senior general. | ||
| 3. | Soe Win | March 2013 | – | Promoted from General. Incumbent. |
'General' or 'Admiral' (Burmese: ဗိုလ်ချုပ်ကြီး|bauilaʻ khayupaʻ karīʺ) is the third highest rank in Myanmar Armed Forces, and traditionally the highest rank that a personnel from Myanmar Navy and Myanmar Air Force can get. It is a four-star 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. "Burmese: ဗိုလ်ချုပ်ကြီး" is translated as "General" for army and air force, and as "Admiral" for navy.
Since 2011, the rank "Burmese: ဗိုလ်ချုပ်ကြီး" is designated to be held by the persons in following appointments.
| Appointment | Service branch | Number of posts | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief of General Staff (Army, Navy and Air Force) | Myanmar Army | 1 | |
| Commander-in-Chief (Navy) | Myanmar Navy | 1 | |
| Commander-in-Chief (Air Force) | Myanmar Air Force | 1 |
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[12] and the Ministry of Transport and Communications[13] are General and Admiral respectively.
| Service branch | Burmese title | English title | Rank insignia | Golden strap | Rank medal | Car insignia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Myanmar Army and Myanmar Air Force | General | |||||
| Myanmar Navy | Admiral |
