Ranks and insignia of NATO are combined military insignia used by the member countries of the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two Nor ...

. 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 In NATO, a standardization agreement (STANAG, redundantly: STANAG agreement) defines processes, procedures, terms, and conditions for common military or technical procedures or equipment between the member countries of the alliance. Each NATO st ...

2116 (formally titled ''NATO Codes for Grades of Military Personnel'').

Officer ranks

OF-1 – OF-10 (bottom to top) are used for

commissioned officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent contex ...

s: * OF-6 – OF-10:

General officer A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...

s * OF-3 – OF-5: Senior officers * OF-1 – OF-2:

Junior officer Junior officer, company officer or company grade officer refers to the lowest operational commissioned officer category of ranks in a military or paramilitary organization, ranking above non-commissioned officers and below senior officers. The ...

Other ranks

OR1–OR9 (bottom to top) are used for other ranks: * OR-5 – OR-9:

Non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

s * OR-1 – OR-4:

Enlisted rank An enlisted rank (also known as an enlisted grade or enlisted rate) is, in some armed services, any rank below that of a commissioned officer. The term can be inclusive of non-commissioned officers or warrant officers, except in United States mi ...

Comparison to US system

The numbers in the system broadly correspond to the

U.S. uniformed services pay grades Pay grades are used by the eight uniformed services of the United States (Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps) to determine wages and b ...

, 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 Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

is OF-3 on the NATO scale and O-4 on the US scale).

Ranks and insignia of member armed forces

Army * Ranks and insignia of NATO member army officers * Ranks and insignia of NATO army enlisted Air Force * Ranks and insignia of NATO member air force officers * Ranks and insignia of NATO member air force enlisted Navy * Ranks and insignia of NATO member navy officers * Ranks and insignia of NATO member navy enlisted

Definitions

Officer ranks

Other ranks

Comparison to US system

Ranks and insignia of member armed forces

See also

References

Citations

Sources

External links