Military rank correspondence system

A military rank correspondence system is a comparison of military ranks across different countries based on their command levels and equivalents, facilitating understanding of hierarchy and functions. This system helps compare ranks across the Army, Air Force, and other branches of the military, but is not always complete, as each country and branch has its own unique characteristics and historical roots. NATO codes according to the STANAG 2116 are often used for this system. However, this comparison has several drawbacks, as for some ranks, such codes simply do not exist or their use is controversial.

In most countries, military ranks are divided into army ranks (awarded to members of the Army and Air Force) and naval ranks (awarded to members of the Navy). However, some countries may have separate rank systems for the Air Force and/or other specific branches of the military (forces), which can complicate comparisons.

This article examines the general issues associated with the creation of a unified military rank correspondence system, including one based on the STANAG 2116.

Ukrainian military expert Lieutenant Colonel Yuri Veremeev^[1] and co-author of his works on the navy, Ilya Kramnik,^[1][2] proposed the following military rank coding systems to eliminate errors in comparing military ranks:^[3]

This system allowed for the addition of letters to numerical codes. For example, if code 2 in the Russian army corresponded to the rank of gefreiter, then in the Wehrmacht, which had several corporal ranks, these ranks could be coded as follows:^[3]

• 2a - Gefreiter
• 2b - Obergefreiter
• 2c - Stabsgefreiter

Although the military rank coding systems of Veremeyev and Kramnik have their obvious advantages, as they offer objective criteria for comparison, they were not widely used outside the "Anatomy of the Army" website for objective reasons, in particular:

• the systems were based on the Soviet-Russian system of military ranks and did not take into account the traditions of other countries^[a]
• the death of Yuri Veremeev^[5] before the reform of military ranks in Ukraine, when new sergeant and senior ranks and corresponding new positions were introduced in order to bring the Ukrainian Armed Forces into line with NATO standards

The current 7th edition of STANAG 2116, released in January 2021, is only the introductory section in English and French. The essence of the standard is set out in NATO standard APersP-01 Ed. A, which "details the NATO military codes for use by countries in preparing personnel tables, applications, reports, and declarations for NATO organizations and commands." The standard also notes that nothing in it should interfere with existing national rank designations or procedures in purely national institutions.^[6]

According to the introductory section, the standard divides NATO military code groups into officer ranks (OF) and other ranks (OR):

• General officer – OF-6 to OF-10
• Senior officer – OF-3 to OF-5
• Junior officer – OF-1 to OF-2
• Other ranks – OR-1 to OR-9

The current version of APersP-01 Ed. A contains the introductory section and six annexes:

• A – army officer ranks
• B – naval officer ranks
• C – air force officer ranks
• D – other army ranks
• E – other naval ranks
• F – other air force ranks

Each annex consists of a comparison table and comments from a NATO country with its own unique characteristics.

The numbering in the system generally corresponds to the United States Military Pay Grading System, with E-x replaced by OR-x. The main difference lies in the career officer rank system, where the US system defines two ranks at the OF-1 level (O-1 and O-2), meaning that all O-x numbers after O-1 are one level higher on the US scale (for example, a major is an OF-3 on the NATO scale and an O-4 on the US scale).

The criteria for comparing ranks are command and other relevant positions and their position in the hierarchy of military formations.^[3]

OF-10 is usually an honorary rank, not found in all NATO countries, and is usually awarded during wartime

The US Armed Forces Warrant Officers have their own code group, but the description of these codes has been amended:

• in Annex A of STANAG 2116 (Ed. 4), the US notes listed the code group W1 - W4 and indicated that this is a separate and distinct category of armed forces personnel, whose rank and priority are below OF, but above OR, and therefore cannot be included in these groups^[7]
• in STANAG 2116 (Ed. 5), this note remained, but for some reason, the introductory section of the standard listed codes WO1 - 4^[8]
• in STANAG 2116 (Ed. 6), the notes regarding codes W1 - W5 were moved to the introductory section of the standard^[9]
• in the current version of the standard, a similar note is contained only in the notes to Appendices A, B, and C, and this category of military personnel is called Officers^[6]

In January 2026, Ukrainian scientist Yurii Kharabuha published version 1.0 of the SWO Military Rank/Grade Code System. This development is based on the STANAG 2116 military rank codes, adapted for use in online encyclopedias for comparing military ranks of the 20th and 21st centuries:

• Officer (Of) and warrant officer (W) ranks are supplemented with the Of0 rank for officer candidates and W0 for warrant officer candidates, non-officer (S) ranks are supplemented with the S0 rank for recruits and the S10 rank for SEA with general officers (major general, lieutenant general etc.)
• Of and S ranks use the indices "+" (senior rank) and "-" (junior rank) to clarify rank
• While officer ranks (Of) are fully oriented toward the STANAG 2116 OF codes, which are clarified using +/− indices, then for non-officer ranks (S) there may be some offset relative to the OR code of the STANAG 2116 standard, due to the following reasons:
  • In the US Army, the OR-4 code is assigned to two ranks of different nature (specialist as the senior rank for enlisted personnel and corporal as the junior rank for non-commissioned officers), therefore the OR-4 code is divided into S4 for a corporal and S3 for a specialist, due to which all junior ranks in the US Army are offset by 1, namely: OR-3 = S2, OR-2 = S1, OR-1 = S0
  • Since the US Marine Corps does not have this problem, only the OR-1 rank becomes S0; the remaining USMC ranks, except S10, remain unchanged numerically: only the letter designation changes from OR to S
• The S10 rank, which has no equivalent in STANAG 2116, contains the following three subranks: S10− for SEA assigned to generals (division/corps/operational command SEA, FORCM/FLTCM etc.), S10 for SEA assigned to the commander of a branch of service, and S10+ for SEAC

The system is currently in the process of refining the criteria for each code. While the criteria for officer troop codes have already been defined, the criteria for non-officer codes derived from the staff positions of service members of the Ukrainian and US armed forces were clarified in versions 1.2 and 1.3. The difficulty in developing precise criteria for non-commissioned officers lies in the different positions for the same OR ranks in the Ukrainian and US armed forces: while in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, platoon/company/battalion SEL positions are OR-6/OR-7/OR-8, in the US Army they are OR-7/OR-8/OR-9.

Starting with version 1.3, SWO versions are being released simultaneously in Ukrainian and Russian. A detailed review of the use of SWO military rank/rank codes for naval ranks and ranks is planned for version 2.0.

• List of comparative military ranks
• NATO military rank codes
• File:SWO-ru.pdf