A NATO standard grade scale is used by the NATO and its partners for the purpose of comparing military ranks across the member nations militaries, as well as for a number of administrative tasks.
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 indicated correspondence with nations ranks. NATO's standardized reference system is intended to be used "by nations when preparing personnel tables, requisitions, reports and returns destined for NATO nations, organizations and commands." [1]
The NATO codes assigned for each grade are based on the agreed corresponding army grades with the naval and air forces grades determined from them by "national regulations". [1]
The NATO rank reference code categories were established in STANAG 2116 (formally titled NATO Codes for Grades of Military Personnel). It is known for certain that STANAG 2116 was ratified by Denmark on 19 January 1971 and that the 3rd edition of STANAG 2116 was adopted no later than October 1975. [2] The current- 7th - edition is just the cover, and the core of the standard is in set out in APersP-01 Ed. A. [3]
| Edition/Version | Date |
|---|---|
| STANAG 2116 Ed.1 | no earlier than January 1971 [2] |
| STANAG 2116 Ed.2 | no data |
| STANAG 2116 Ed.3 | no later than October 1975 [2] |
| STANAG 2116 Ed.4 | June 14, 1978 [4] |
| STANAG 2116 Ed.5 | March 13, 1996 [4] |
| STANAG 2116 Ed.6 | February 25, 2010 [3] |
| STANAG 2116 Ed.7, APersP-01 Ed.A V.1 | January 13, 2021 [5] |
| APersP-01 Ed.A V.2 | March 11, 2022 [5] |
| APersP-01 Ed.A V.3 | June 16, 2022 [5] |
OF-10 – OF-1 (highest to lowest rank code) are used for commissioned officers: [1]
According to the standard, OF-10 is a national title, [a] so it is not found in most of the armed forces of NATO countries, including the US Armed Forces. [b] For example, in the French Armed Forces OF-10 is not a rank but a title, which corresponds moreover to a high position in the state. [6] There is no OF-10 in the British Royal Marines, [c] in the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force rank OF-10 applicable in wartime only. [7] The armed forces of Albania, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg also lack the OF-9 rank.
In the Latvian Armed Forces the officer rank Lieutenant is identified by the Code OF-0. [8]
OR-9 – OR-1 (highest to lowest rank code) are used for other ranks (enlisted ranks and non-commissioned officers (NCO)): [1]
For NATO purposes, NCOs are ranked OR-5 to OR-9. [1] However, national rank structures might differentiate from this.
In the U.S. armed forces 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, and has a special group of codes (W-1 – W-5). [9] In the Commonwealth tradition (for NATO the British Armed Forces and Canadian Armed Forces) warrant officers are the highest other ranks. [10]
In the British Armed Forces senior non-commissioned officers (e.g. sergeants) are in OR-5 to OR-7 and junior non-commissioned officers (eg corporals) are in OR-3 and OR-4. [11] In the U.S. military OR-5 and above are non-commissioned officers for the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force but in the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy (both parts of the Department of the Navy), OR-4 and above are non-commissioned officers. [12]
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 recognizes two grades 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). For warrant officers, NATO codes and U.S. uniformed services pay grades are equivalent. [13]
| Rank group | General / flag officers | Senior officers | Junior officers | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NATO code | OF-10 | OF-9 | OF-8 | OF-7 | OF-6 | OF-5 | OF-4 | OF-3 | OF-2 | OF-1 | ||||||||||||||
| 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 | |||||||||||||
| 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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Annex B to APP-06 (related to STANAG 2019 [14] ) standard lists 11 formation/unit groups (13 in U.S. Armed Forces from 0 to 12) and identifies the command level of some of them: [15]
| Group | Symbol | Unit | Commanding officer | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| § B.2 of APP-06 | in U.S. [16] [17] | in UK [18] | |||
| Group 11 | ☓☓☓☓☓ | Army Group | joint force commander | OF-9 | OF-9 |
| Group 10 | ☓☓☓☓ | Army [d] | ― | OF-8 or OF-9 | ― [e] |
| Group 9 | ☓☓☓ | Corps | normally OF-8 | OF-8 | OF-8 |
| Group 8 | ☓☓ | Division | normally OF-7 | OF-7 [f] | OF-7 |
| Group 7 | ☓ | Brigade [g] | normally OF-5 or OF-6 | OF-5 | OF-6 |
| Group 6 | ❘ ❘ ❘ | Regiment [g] | usually OF-4, OF-5 or OF-6 | OF-5 | OF-5 or OF-4 |
| Group 5 | ❘ ❘ | Battalion [h] | OF-3 or OF-4 | OF-4 | OF-4 |
| Group 4 | ❘ | Company [h] | OF-2 or OF-3 | OF-2 | OF-3 [i] |
| Group 3 [j] | ●●● | Platoon [h] | OF-1/OF-2 or OR-7/OR-8 | OF-1 | OF-1 |
The Bilateral Strategic Command Directive 040-002 "NATO Non-Commissioned Officer and Junior Officer Bi-Strategic Command Employment and Development Strategy" (19 December 2023), based on the NATO Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) and Junior Officer (JO) Bi-SC Strategy and NCO Guidelines [19] describes the NATO rank indicators for NCOs: [20]
Based on the intentions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine to join NATO, NATO codes for military ranks have been officially introduced in these countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a corresponding law in 2005. [21] In Ukraine, the introduction of NATO codes for military ranks took place during 2019-2021, including::
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Oct. 17, 2019 | the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) adopted the Law of Ukraine No. 205-IX (came into force on October 1, 2020) [22] which introduced sergeant ranks in the Armed Forces of Ukraine according to NATO standards [23] [k] |
| Jun. 4, 2020 | the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Law of Ukraine No. 680-IX (came into force on October 1, 2020) [24] which introduced general officer ranks in the Armed Forces of Ukraine according to NATO standards [l] |
| Sep. 7, 2020 | the Order of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine No. 317 approved the List of full-time positions of privates and NCOs and their corresponding military ranks and tariff categories of positions, which came into force on January 1, 2021 [25] [m] |
| Oct. 13, 2020 | the Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 431/2020 amended the List of positions subject to replacement by general officers, taking into account the new system of military ranks [26] |
| Jan. 6, 2021 | the website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine reported that "By order of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, the List of NATO military rank codes is being implemented according to the NATO standard STANAG 2116" [27] [28] [29] |
Some European NATO partners such as Austria [30] and Ireland [31] [32] describe their ranks in terms of NATO rank codes for comparison with NATO forces. Finland and Sweden also had a conversion table to NATO standards prior to becoming a NATO member. [33]
General officer grades are usually defined by the number of stars they ‘wear’. In the third edition of the STANAG 2116, OF-6 to OF-10 were described as "to be used for one to five star ranks or equivalents respectively". [34] In the fourth through sixth editions of the standard, the term 'four star' was used for the OF-9 of the Italian and Portuguese armed forces. [35] APersP-01 Ed. A clarified that in the French forces the OF-9 "is the highest rank in the hierarchy … therefore, carry the 4 stars and 5 stars rank marks". [7]