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Ranks and insignia of NATO

A standard grade scale is used by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its partners for the purpose of comparing military ranks across the member nations militaries. It is used for specifying posts within NATO organisation.

Rank codes

NATO maintains a "standard rank scale" which is also known as a "standardized reference system" in an attempt to standardize NATO codes of rank for military personnel and indicate correspondence with nations ranks.[1] It is intended to be used "by nations when preparing personnel tables, requisitions, reports and returns destined for NATO nations, organizations and commands." The NATO rank reference code categories were established in 1978 in STANAG 2116 (formally titled NATO Codes for Grades of Military Personnel). The current- 7th - edition[a] is just the cover, and the core of the standard is in set out in "NATO Codes For Grades Of Military Personnel" (APersP-01)[b].[1]

The NATO codes assigned for each grade are based on the agreed corresponding army grades with the naval and air forces grades determined from them by "national regulations".[2].

Officer rank codes

OF-1 – OF-10 (lowest rank code to highest) are used for commissioned officers:[2]

The grade of OF-11 may be used to designate highest national title such as Generalissimo or General of the Armies (so called six-star rank), but its not officially recognized by standard. [3][4]

Non-officer personnel codes

OR1–OR9 (lowest rank code to highest) are used for other ranks / enlisted ranks and non-commissioned officers (NCO) :[2]

In the US armed forces Warrant Officer is a separate and distinct category of officers. This officer rank and precedence is below those of officer personnel, but above that of non-officer personnel, and has a special group of codes (W-1 – W-5).[5] In the Commonwealth tradition (for NATO the British Armed Forces and Canadian Armed Forces in NATO) warrant officers are the highest other ranks.[6]

In the British Armed Forces senior non-commissioned officers are in OR-5 to OR-7 and junior non-commissioned officers (eg corporals) are in OR-3 and OR-4.[7] In the US military OR-5 and above are non-commissioned officers for the US Army and US Air Force but in the US Marine Corps and US Navy (both parts of the Department of the Navy), OR-4 and above are non-commissioned officers.[8]

Officer rank code application

Appendix B of the APP-06 standard lists 11 formation/unit groups (13 in US Armed Forces) and identifies the command level of seven of them:[9]

This is a general NATO practice, which does not prevent individual branches of the armed forces, for example, the British Army,[10] the US Army[11] and the US Marine Corps,[12] from having their own approaches to the positions held by certain officers and NCOs.

Non-officer rank code criteria

In 2010, Allied Command Operations and Allied Command Transformation produced NATO NCO Bi-SC Strategy and Recommended NCO Guidelines.[13] The current Bi-SC joint document (19 December 2023) Directive 040-002 "NATO Non-Commissioned Officer and Junior Officer Bi-Strategic Command Employment and Development Strategy", describes the NATO rank indicators for NCOs:[14]

Specific roles:[15]

Comparison to US system

The numbers in the system broadly correspond to the U.S. uniformed services pay grades, with OR-x replacing E-x. The main difference is in the commissioned officer ranks, where the US system recognises two ranks at OF-1 level (O-1 and O-2), meaning that all O-x numbers after O-1 are one point higher on the US scale than they are on the NATO scale (e.g. a major is OF-3 on the NATO scale and O-4 on the US scale).

Use of NATO rank codes by NATO partners

Based on the intentions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine to join NATO, NATO codes for military ranks have been officially introduced in these countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a corresponding law in 2005.[16] In Ukraine, the introduction of NATO codes for military ranks took place in two stages. Firstly in 2020, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) amended the structure of military ranks[17] which was followed in January 2021, by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine approving the compliance of military ranks with NATO codes by order[18] though the order had a confidential status.[f]

Some European NATO partners such as Austria[19] and Ireland[20][21] describe their ranks in terms of NATO rank codes for comparison with NATO forces.

Other use of NATO codes

NATO codes are also sometimes used to describe equivalence for countries that are not aligned with NATO. Eg in setting out commissioned officer ranks in the Israel Defense Forces with those in the US Army.[22][23][24][25][26], because in the IDF officer ranks are not determined by the position held, but on length of service.

Similarly other officer rank systems, such as the Soviet one, are not readily matched with NATO codes.[g]

Mapping to "star ranks"

Commissioned officers of the general officer grade are usually defined by the number of stars they ‘wear’. This is a model adopted from the US which, starting at one-star, utilises an increasing number of stars to identify an officer’s increasing rank.[3]

In STANAG 2116 (5th ed.), uses the term "four star" for referring to certain Italian OF-9 appointments in the air force and navy.[27] The term is also used to differentiate between two rank grades of a Portuguse general [28] APersP-01 notes that the French ranks of "général de division" and "vice-amiral" may carry the 4 star and 5 star rank marks.[29]

Comparative ranks of member armed forces

See also

Notes

  1. ^ superseding Edition 6 of February 25, 2010
  2. ^ latest edition 2022
  3. ^ a b the Canadian armed forces does currently operate any divisional or corps level formations
  4. ^ a b the meaning of brigade and regiment differs across armies and branch of service, and other names may be used
  5. ^ a b c depending on army and service arm may be known by other names
  6. ^ Among the orders of the Minister of Defense for 2019, posted on the website of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, order No. 1 is missing
  7. ^ In the Soviet system there is no rank of brigadier general or its equivalent (OF-6), and above lieutenant general (NATO OF-8) there are five higher ranks (Colonel general, Army General, Marshal of the branch, Chief marshal of the branch, Marshal of the Soviet Union), excluding the rank of Generalissimus of the Soviet Union which was created for Stalin only. The situation is similar in the Soviet navy.
  1. ^ a b STANAG 2116 (7), p. 1.
  2. ^ a b c APersP-01, p. 1-1.
  3. ^ a b "Stars & Generals – Part One: Background". Boot Camp & Military Fitness Institute. 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-02-25.
  4. ^ "Stars & Generals – Part Seven: Six-Star General Officer Ranks". Boot Camp & Military Fitness Institute. 2018. Archived from the original on 2018-08-06.
  5. ^ APersP-01, p. А-10.
  6. ^ APersP-01, p. D-1, D-3.
  7. ^ APersP-01, p. D-8, Е-7, F-7.
  8. ^ "U.S. Military Rank Insignia". Official Website U.S. Department of Defense. 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-04-14. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
  9. ^ APP-06(E)(1), p. 795, 796.
  10. ^ "Rank Structure". British Army. Retrieved 2024-07-10.
  11. ^ "U.S. Army Ranks". Official Website U.S. Army. Retrieved 2024-07-10.
  12. ^ "Ranks". Official Website U.S. Marine Corps. Retrieved 2024-07-10.
  13. ^ Bi-SC NCO Guidelines 2017, p. 1.
  14. ^ Bi-SC Directive 040-002, p. 7, 8.
  15. ^ Bi-SC Directive 040-002, p. 9.
  16. ^ Law on Service in the Armed Forces of B&H, p. 33, 34.
  17. ^ Law of Ukraine dated 04.06.2020 No. 680-IX.
  18. ^ "Ukrainian military ranks replaced with NATO military rank codes". Rubryka. 6 January 2021.
  19. ^ "Rank Insignias". Official Website Austrian Armed Forces. 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-06-27. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
  20. ^ RDFRA 2021, p. 42, 43.
  21. ^ De Barra 2022, p. 99, 100.
  22. ^ "Ranks". Official Website Israel Defense Forces. 2007. Archived from the original on 2012-10-29.
  23. ^ "New rank for IDF officers - Master Warrant Officer". Israel Hayom. 22 April 2012.
  24. ^ Shafrir, Asher (2013). "The Names of Israeli Military Ranks and their linguistic analysis.pdf". Academia.edu. p. 3.
  25. ^ Campbell 2018, p. 65.
  26. ^ Gross 2021, p. 32,110 (262,340).
  27. ^ STANAG 2116 (5), p. A-4, A-7-1.
  28. ^ STANAG 2116 (5), p. A-2, A-10-1.
  29. ^ APersP-01, p. A-8, B-8, C-7.

References

External links