Editing Commander-in-chief (section)

{{Short description|Supreme commanding authority of a military}}
{{Redirect|CINC|other uses|CINC (disambiguation)|and|Commander in Chief (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Chain of Command}}
{{Military units}}

A '''commander-in-chief''' or '''supreme commander''' ('''supreme commander-in-chief''') is the person who exercises supreme [[command and control]] over an [[military|armed force]] or a [[military branch]]. As a technical term, it refers to military competencies that reside in a country's executive leadership, a [[head of state]], [[head of government]], or other designated [[government official]].

While often used interchangeably, the title of [[Supreme Commander–in–Chief]] is technically different, since the two titles can be in use simultaneously. For example, in the case of the [[Armed Forces of Ukraine]], the ''supreme commander-in-chief'' is the [[president of Ukraine]], while the ''commander-in-chief'' is its [[Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine|professional head]] (note that the word "supreme" is omitted in order to distinguish the two titles.)