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.
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 the document 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 (e.g. many forces have two ranks at OF-1, usually lieutenants):
- Officer ranks
- OF1–OF10 (bottom to top) are used for officers.[1]
- Other ranks
- OR1–OR9 (bottom to top) are used for other ranks.[2]
- Warrant officers
- WO1–WO5 (bottom to top) are used for United States warrant officers only; other countries use only regular officer ranks, do not have warrant officers, or warrant officers are considered as other ranks or enlisted rank (for example a British Army WO1 is coded as OR-9).
Comparison to other systems
The numbers in the system broadly correspond to the US military pay grade system, 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).
Ranks and insignia
Army
Air Force
Navy
See also
References
- STANAG 2116: NATO Codes for Grades of Military Personnel. NATO. 13 March 1996.
- "person-type-rank-code". Multilateral Interoperability Programme. 13 December 2007. Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2015-05-13.
- "NATO Rank Comparison". Canadian Forces. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
- ^ The abbreviation "OF" stand for "officer / officier" see: 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.
- ^ The abbreviation "OR" stand for "other ranks / sous-officiers et militaires du rang" see: 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.