Systems admiral

The title of Systems Admiral was borne within the Imperial Navy by the commanders of Systems Forces. Systems Admirals were sometimes known as Commodores, although this latter title also had other usages.

Systems Admirals were the lowest level of the Imperial Navy's command hierarchy with authority spanning more than one star system; typically, they were responsible for subdivisions of Sectors, hundreds of light-years across and encompassing dozens of worlds that required Imperial protection. Their tasks were made no easier by the fact that many of these worlds had no effective HoloNet access, and could only be contacted rapidly by courier ships.

However, while Systems Admirals' commands were far larger than the small fleets or squadrons that had been deployed in most Sectors before the Clone Wars, they were small compared with the larger Fleets commanded by Fleet Admirals, to say nothing of full Sector Groups.

Behind the Scenes
The rank of Systems Admiral appears only in The Imperial Sourcebook, although there are occasional references elsewhere to Imperial officers as "Commodores". In this context, it is likely that both "Commodore" and "Systems Admiral" should be interpreted as titles denoting a specific sort of command, rather than particular ranks in a graded hierarchy, and it is even possible that they could be borne by officers who did not actually hold flag rank: the specific rank equivalent to a New Republic Commodore in Imperial service is usually given as Commander, while Michael Unther appears to have served as the "Admiral" of a full Sector Fleet while holding a rank lower than Rear Admiral.

It is not quite clear what the relationship was between Systems Forces and the specialised Fleets which formed the highest level of subdivision within Sector Groups; probably the most obvious reading of the source is that squadrons such as a Force Superiority or Force Escort, which were the major subdivisions within Fleets, were themselves types of Systems Force; but it is also possible that these units formed the force pools within each Systems Admirals commands, so that each Systems Force was geographic division of Sector resources, while the Fleets were divided according to the specialist function of each type of unit.