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Ranks and insignia of NATO

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Comparative military ranks
Armies,
air forces
(non-Commonwealth)		 Navies,
coast guards		 Air forces
(Commonwealth system)
Flag commissioned officers
Field marshal or Marshal Admiral of the fleet Marshal of the air force
General or
colonel general or
army general		 Admiral Air chief marshal
Lieutenant general or
army corps general		 Vice admiral Air marshal
Major general or
divisional general		 Rear admiral or
Counter admiral		 Air vice-marshal
Brigadier or
brigadier general		 Commodore or
flotilla admiral		 Air commodore
Senior commissioned officers
Colonel (Ship-of-the-line)
Captain		 Group captain
Lieutenant colonel Frigate captain or
Commander		 Wing commander
Major or
commandant		 Corvette captain or Lieutenant
commander		 Squadron leader
Junior commissioned officers
Captain Lieutenant Flight lieutenant
First lieutenant or
lieutenant		 Lieutenant
junior grade or
sub-lieutenant		 Flying officer
Second lieutenant or
junior lieutenant		 Ensign or
midshipman		 Pilot officer
Officer cadet Officer cadet Flight cadet
Non-commissioned officers
Warrant officer or
sergeant major		 Warrant officer or
chief petty officer		 Warrant officer
Sergeant Petty officer Sergeant
Enlisted ranks
Corporal or
bombardier		 Leading seaman Corporal
Lance corporal or
Lance bombardier or
Specialist		 Able seaman Leading aircraftman
Private or
gunner or
trooper or
sapper		 Seaman Aircraftman or
airman or
aviator

Ranks and insignia of NATO affiliated nations are combined military ranks and insignia used by the member countries (and other affiliated nations) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The rank scale is used for specifying posts within NATO.

Rank codes by STANAG 2116 / APersP-01[edit]

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] The NATO rank reference code categories were established in a 1978 document entitled STANAG 2116 (formally titled NATO Codes for Grades of Military Personnel). The current 7th edition dated January 13, 2021 (supersedes Edition 6, dated February 25, 2010) is just the cover, and the core of the standard is in APersP-01, Edition A[1].

NATO rank codes are not the same as military ranks (eg private, corporal,, captain...) nor military pay grades (eg the US military E-1, W-1, CW-5, O-1e, O-10, etc.). They are rank codes that allow for interoperability among NATO member nations.

Officer rank codes[edit]

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

In US Forces the 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, therefore has a special group of codes (W-1 – W-5).[3]

In British Armed Forces and Canadian Armed Forces warrant officers are the highest other ranks.[4]

Other rank codes[edit]

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

  • OR-5 – OR-9: Non-commissioned officers (for NATO purposes)
  • OR-1 – OR-4: other ranks/enlisted ranks (usually)

At the same time, in British Armed Forces are called Senior Non-Commissioned Officers in OR-5 to OR-7 inclusive and Junior Non-Commissioned Officers (eg corporals) in OR3 and OR-4. A counter example is the lack of OR-5 in the Danish Navy and Danish Air Force, so NCOs in these branches of the armed forces start with OR-6. Particularly interesting in this regard is the example of the US Armed Forces, where there are two points of view on the minimum rank for NCOs:

  • In the US Army and US Air Force, OR-5 and above are non-commissioned officers
  • In the US Marine Corps and US Navy, OR-4 and above are non-commissioned officers

Comparison to US system[edit]

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).

Officer ranks
Rank group General / flag officers Senior officers Junior officers Officer cadet
NATO code OF-10 OF-9 OF-8 OF-7 OF-6 OF-5 OF-4 OF-3 OF-2 OF-1 OF(D) Student officer
Uniformed services pay grade Special grade O-10 O-9 O-8 O-7 O-6 O-5 O-4 O-3 O-2 O-1 Officer candidate/Cadet
Other ranks
Rank group Non-commissioned officers Enlisted
NATO code OR-9 OR-8 OR-7 OR-6 OR-5 OR-4 OR-3 OR-2 OR-1
Uniformed services pay grade Special E-9 E-8 E-7 E-6 E-5 E-4 E-3 E-2 E-1

Use of NATO rank codes outside NATO[edit]

Based on the intentions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Ukraine, to join NATO, NATO codes for military ranks have been officially introduced in these countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina did so by adopting a corresponding law in 2005.[5] In Ukraine, the introduction of NATO codes for military ranks took place in two stages. Firstly in 2020, the Ukrainian parliament amended the structure of military ranks[6] which was followed in January 2021, by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine approving the compliance of military ranks with NATO codes by order[7] though the order had a confidential status.[8].

Such European NATO partners as Austria and Ireland[9] use NATO rank codes to as an approximation for comparison with NATO forces. In the first case, such use occurs at an unofficial level: the website of the Austrian Armed Forces warns that since Austria is not a NATO member country, there is no policy on NATO rank class equivalents and the classes shown on this page are approximations given only for the sake of easier comparison to other armies.[10] An analysis of the contents of the .ie domain, which is owned by Ireland, revealed three different publications with examples of the use of NATO codes, but no regulatory document could be found that confirmed the use of NATO codes.

It should be noted that attempting to use NATO codes for countries that do not seek to integrate into NATO may lead to disagreements over which code corresponds to which rank. This may apply to officer ranks, but usually applies to other ranks. A good example is the lack of consensus on the equivalence of non-commissioned officer ranks in the Israel Defense Forces with those in the US Army.[11][12][13] This problem is related to the fact that the ranks of IDF unserial officers do not depend on the position held, but on length of service, so their relationship with NATO codes is a debatable issue. Each of the above points of view has its own comments, which are given in the corresponding comments to the sources. The most widely disseminated point of view was that of the professor Asher Shafrir[14][15], although he is a linguist and not a military specialist.

Officer ranks and criteria for them[edit]

Appendix B of the APP-06 standard[16] lists 11 formation/unit groups and identifies the commanders of 7 of them.

According to Bi-SC Directive 040-002[17] NATO rank Indicators for NCOs are as follows:

  • OR-1 through OR-3: These are the basic entry ranks into the military structure.
  • OR-4: The first level of leadership within the NATO NCO ranks.
  • OR-5: The OR-5 is the first NATO designated NCO grade and the level of leadership with the greatest impact on subordinate ranks.
  • OR-6: This is the first grade at which OR should be considered for Staff NCO duties at NATO higher headquarters employment.
  • OR-7: The OR-7 is empowered and considered a key element within the command structure. While no formal mandate exists, this is the level at which, when consistent with their national authorities, SNCOs start to provide mentorship/assistance for Junior Officers (OF-1/OF-2).
  • OR-8: Uses enhanced leadership skills and broad operational experience to advise unit/element leaders and commanders on organizational effectiveness.
  • OR-9: The most experienced SNCO within the NATO NCO structure. This grade is normally utilized in an advisory capacity when assigned to a higher headquarters.

Ranks and insignia of member armed forces[edit]

Army

Air Force

Navy

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b NATO:NSO 2021, p. 1.
  2. ^ a b NATO:NSO 2022, p. 1-1.
  3. ^ NATO:NSO 2022, p. А-10.
  4. ^ NATO:NSO 2022, p. D-1, D-3.
  5. ^ PSBiH 2005, p. 33,34.
  6. ^ Rada 2020.
  7. ^ rubryka.com 2021.
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ De Barra 2022.
  10. ^ www.bundesheer.at 2023.
  11. ^ idf.il 2007.
  12. ^ Shafrir 2013a.
  13. ^ Gross 2021.
  14. ^ Campbell 2018, p. 65.
  15. ^ Tennyson 2018.
  16. ^ NATO:NSO 2023, p. 795 - 826.
  17. ^ NATO:Bi-SC 2023, p. 8,9.

References[edit]

  • NATO:NSO (January 2021). STANAG 2116 (7th ed.). Brussels, Belgium: NATO Standardization Office.
  • NATO:NSO (June 2022). APersP-01 (Еd.A Ver.3). Brussels, Belgium: NATO Standardization Office.
  • NATO:NSO (October 2023). APP-06 (Еd.E Ver.1). Brussels, Belgium: NATO Standardization Office.
  • NATO:MSA (March 1996). STANAG 2116 (5th ed.) (PDF). Military Agency for Standardization. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-03-13.
  • NATO:Bi-SC (December 2023). Directive 040-002 (PDF). Allied Command Operations, Allied Command Transformation.
  • Department of the Army (April 2010). Army Regulation 220-1 (PDF). Washington, DC: Department of the Army.
  • PSBiH (October 2005). "Zakon o službi u Oružanim snagama Bosne i Hercegovine" [Law on Service in the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina] (PDF). www.mod.gov.ba (in Bosnian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-06-18. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  • Rada (2020). "Zakon Ukrainy vid 04.06.2020 № 680-IX. Pro vnesennia zmin do deiakykh zakonodavchykh aktiv Ukrainy shchodo viiskovykh zvan viiskovosluzhbovtsiv" [Law of Ukraine dated 04.06.2020 No. 680-IX. On amendments to some legislative acts of Ukraine regarding the military ranks of military personnel] (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  • DoD (January 2020). Visual Information Style Guide (PDF). U.S. Department of Defense. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-03-05.
  • "U.S. Military Rank Insignia". www.defense.gov. U.S. Department of Defense. 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-04-14. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
  • "Military Units: Marine Corps". www.defense.gov. U.S. Department of Defense. 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-05-23. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
  • "U.S. Army Ranks". www.army.mil. U.S. Army. 2018. Archived from the original on 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
  • "Ranks". www.marines.mil. U.S. Marine Corps. 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-09-30. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
  • "Rank Insignias". www.bundesheer.at. Ministry of Defence (Austria). 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-06-27. Retrieved 2024-06-30.

External links[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e NCO IDF vs W1/W-2 US Arny comparison, which is incorrect
  2. ^ a b Inaccuracy: Staff Sergeant and Sergeant are NCO
  3. ^ a b c Inaccuracy: in US Arny/Us Ar Force E-4 (OR-4) is not NCO
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