Ranks and insignia of NATO

Ranks and insignia of NATO are combined military insignia used by the member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Comparative military ranks
Armies,
air forces
(non-Commonwealth),
space forces		 Navies Air forces
(Commonwealth system)
Commissioned officers
Field marshal or
general of the army or
general of the air force		 Admiral of
the fleet or
grand admiral		 Marshal of the air force
General or
colonel general or
army general		 Admiral or
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
Colonel Captain Group captain
Lieutenant colonel Commander Wing commander
Major or
commandant		 Lieutenant
commander		 Squadron leader
Captain Lieutenant Flight lieutenant
Lieutenant or
first 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 or
specialist		 Leading seaman Corporal or Leading aircraftman
Private or
gunner or
trooper or
sapper		 Seaman Aircraftman or
airman or
aviator

The rank scale is used for specifying posts within NATO.

Definitions

NATO maintains a "standard rank scale" in an attempt to match every member country's military rank to corresponding ranks used by the other members. The rank categories were established in a 1978 document entitled STANAG 2116 (formally titled NATO Codes for Grades of Military Personnel).

There are two scales, though not all member countries use all the points on the NATO scales and some have more than one rank at some points. For example, many forces have two ranks at OF-1, usually lieutenants.

Officer ranks

Warrant officers
  • Most countries do not have an intermediate tier of ranks between officers and other ranks (see below). The exception is the United States, and the NATO warrant officer grades of WO1–WO5 (bottom to top) are used only for warrant officer ranks of the US military. In other countries with "warrant officer" ranks, they are considered part of other ranks. For example, a British Army WO1 has the NATO code OR-9.

Other ranks

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 and WO-x replacing W-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
NATO codeOF-10OF-9OF-8OF-7OF-6OF-5OF-4OF-3OF-2OF-1OF(D)Student officer
Uniformed services pay gradeSpecial gradeO-10O-9O-8O-7O-6O-5O-4O-3O-2O-1Officer candidate
Other ranks
NATO codeOR-9OR-8OR-7OR-6OR-5OR-4OR-3OR-2OR-1
Uniformed services pay gradeE-9E-8E-7E-6E-5E-4E-3E-2E-1

Ranks and insignia of member armed forces

Army

Air Force

Navy

See also

References

Citations
  1. NATO glossary of abbreviations used in NATO documents and publications / Glossaire OTAN des abréviations utilisées dans les documents et publications OTAN (PDF). 2010. p. 235.
  2. NATO glossary of abbreviations used in NATO documents and publications / Glossaire OTAN des abréviations utilisées dans les documents et publications OTAN (PDF). 2010. p. 238.

Sources
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