Commanding officer, also known as a C.O. is an officer who has command responsibility for a post - such as an installation, station, or a ship in both the United Earth Starfleet as well as the Federation Starfleet.
For most starship commands, a commanding officer will usually hold the rank of Captain, however this is not always the case. Individuals from the rank of Lieutenant all the way up to Admiral have been known to hold the post of commanding officer.
In 2364 the Bluegill parasites attempted a takeover of Starfleet, which was detected by a number of Starfleet officers. Learning of this possible conspiracy, Captain Jean-Luc Picard had Lt. Commander Data review all Starfleet orders for the past six months. In the course of his review, Data learned that there was among other things an uncustomary shuffling of commanding officers, with these new C.O.'s having frequent contact with the highest levels of Starfleet Command. (TNG episode: "Conspiracy")
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A commanding officer (or CO) is an officer in command of a military unit. The term can generally be used to refer to an officer who outranks another officer.
Within military organizations, the commanding officer (often abbreviated to C.O.) was the officer in charge of a military unit. Typically the commanding officer had ultimate authority over the unit, and was usually given wide latitude within the bounds of military law. In this respect, commanding officers have significant responsibilities, duties and powers.
A commanding officer may have been of any rank of commissioned officer; usually there were more officers than command positions available, and time spent in command, referred to as seniority, was generally a key aspect of promotion; therefore the role of commanding officer was highly valued, and in theory only goes to the best officers.
In most militaries, the commanding officer was often assisted by an executive officer (also abbreviated as X.O.), whose job it was to handle personnel and day-to-day non-combat operations. Larger units, such as large capital-class warships, also played host to a whole collection of staff officers.
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