Captain Untouchable
Jan 24th, 2009, 06:44:27 PM
Since I mentioned it over in the SpecForce list, I figured I should get around to making good on my claim that I'd throw up some rank thoughts for deliberation. We sorta discussed the rank issue earlier, but with only a handful of people actually needing to worry about ranks (and most of those people being command-level anyhow), I don't think we really settled on anything concrete.
Assuming that no one has any protests, I'd like to throw up my findings from the research and swatting-up I've been doing, with a view to creating a concrete rank list that can be stickied, go on the wiki, or wherever. Its a mix of information from EU novels, from sites like wookieepedia and The-Force.net, and from general real-world usage of ranks, with a little fudging and hand-waving thrown in for good mesure.
I'll start off with the Officer stuff, since that's where most of the confusion arises: we can always tackle the NCO stuff afterwards. To save you all a long and boring read through how I actually came up with all this stuff, I'll try to keep the explanation as concise as possible! Appologies for the inevitable long-windedness though.
<table><tr><td width="200">Alliance Navy</td><td width="200">Army / SpecForce</td><td width="200">Starfighter Corps</td></tr><tr><td>Fleet Admiral</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Admiral</td><td>General</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Rear Admiral</td><td>(Lieutenant) General</td><td><s>Lieutenant</s> General</td></tr><tr><td>Commodore</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Line Captain</td><td>Brigadier</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Captain</td><td>Colonel</td><td>Colonel</td></tr><tr><td>Commander</td><td>Lieutenant Colonel</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Lieutenant Commander</td><td>Major</td><td>Major<br><s>Lieutenant</s> Commander</td></tr><tr><td>Lieutenant</td><td>Captain</td><td>Captain</td></tr><tr><td>Sub-Lieutenant</td><td>(First) Lieutenant</td><td>(Flight) Lieuenant</td></tr><tr><td>Ensign</td><td>Second Lieutenant</td><td>Flight Officer</td></tr></table>
That's a pretty confusing table: I'll explain it all a row at a time. Assume that everything on the same row is an equivalent rank.
Fleet Admiral
Fans has already established that the Supreme Commander of the Alliance Fleet is referred to as a Fleet Admiral. They also have jurisdiction over SpecForce and the Starfighter Corps (but not Intelligence) - not only does that make sense in terms of chain-of-command and logistics, but it also explains why Admiral Ackbar seems to be almost everyone's boss.
Admiral / General
An Admiral commands large fleets of ships, and acts as the Fleet Admiral's direct subordinate. The equivalent Army rank of General would be held by the officer in overall command of SpecForce: effectively, SpecForce is being treated as a "Fleet" in its own right. Because there aren't any fleet-sized Starfighter units (and since they'd all be based on a Starship, with a Navy Officer in overall command), there is no Starfighter Corps rank at this level.
Rear Admiral / (Lieutenant) General / General
A Rear Admiral usually commands a particular sub-group or squadron within a larger Fleet; an Admiral will usually have multiple Rear Admirals commanding elements of his Fleet. I skipped out Vice Admiral, since the Alliance Fleet isn't really big enough to warrant that many levels of command at this point.
The equivalent Army rank would be Lieutenant General; I'm using "Lieutenant" rather than "Major" General because it is the next rank down from General. (Major General is actually short for Sergeant-Major General incidentally, hence Major being junior to Lieutenant) A SpecForce General would probably command a Division (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Alliance_Special_Forces#Divisions), or a base (like Echo Base). Since there is only one General, SpecForce probably wouldn't bother using the Lieutenant prefix, save for when distinguishing between the two degrees of authority.
The Starfighter Corps does occasionally feature Generals, such as Horton Salm (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Horton_Salm) in the X-Wing series. Based on his example, a Starfighter General would likely command a planetary base, or a really big fighter unit.
Commodore
A Navy rank with no equivalent; generally used for flag officers commanding more than a single Line of ships - a Navy Squadron, or similar.
Line Captain / Brigadier
A rank only slightly above Captain, a Line Captain is used to designate the senior-most Captain in a Line of ships (usually around four). Similarly, Brigadier would be a rank slightly above Colonel (akin to an Imperial High Colonel) who is slightly more senior than the other Colonels. Would likely command large infantry units (in the absense of a General), or one of the Regiments (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Alliance_Special_Forces#SpecForce_Regiments) within a SpecForce Division, to ensure they outranked any Colonels that might be members of said Regiment.
Captain / Colonel / Colonel
I'm sure you all know what most of the ranks from here on in represent; I'll just point out the relevant specifics where required. A Starfighter Colonel would probably command a Fighter Group containing multiple wings, such as the 2 Wings / 6 Squadrons of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer.
Commander / Lieutenant Colonel
This one is quite easy. There is no equivalent Starfighter rank however; Major has been bumped down a step, as explained below.
Lieutenant Commander / Major / Major/Commander
Both Starfighter Major and Starfighter Commander are considered equivalent to an Army Major, and an Army Lieutenant Commander. The only distinction in authority comes from within the Starfighter Corps. In terms of rank evolution, a Starfighter <s>Lieutenant</s> Commander would have been created to fill the role of Squadron Leader. When multiple Squadrons operated together, one of those Commanders was selected to outrank the others (akin to Line Captain, Brigadier, etc), and was designated Major. It's a bit of a fudge, but it does help explain away the Commander/Major inversion.
Lieutenant / Captain / Captain
Not worth commenting on.
Sub-Lieutenant / (First) Lieutenant / (Flight) Lieutenant
To distinguish from other kinds of Lieutenant, Starfighter Lieutenants are occasionally referred to as a "Flight Lieutenant" in the EU. There are no EU references to anyone holding a rank called First Lieutenant; since Sub-Lieutenant and Flight Lieutenant are both British-based, referring to the rank as "Lieutenant" would seem appropriate. However, they can potentially be referred to as a First Lieutenant (by the Navy) in situations where confusion might arise.
Ensign / Second Lieutenant / Flight Officer
Ensign is the American name (in the Royal Navy, an Ensign is a type of flag); however, it's a bit less of a mouthful than the British "Acting Sub-Lieutenant". I've listed Second Lieutenant as the Army rank, but I do personally feel that Junior Lieutenant is more catchy. There isn't a Lieutenant JG rank in the Navy, so the possibility of confusion would be minimal; it also sounds more retro and sci-fi. But that's just personal preference. *shrug*
Assuming that no one has any protests, I'd like to throw up my findings from the research and swatting-up I've been doing, with a view to creating a concrete rank list that can be stickied, go on the wiki, or wherever. Its a mix of information from EU novels, from sites like wookieepedia and The-Force.net, and from general real-world usage of ranks, with a little fudging and hand-waving thrown in for good mesure.
I'll start off with the Officer stuff, since that's where most of the confusion arises: we can always tackle the NCO stuff afterwards. To save you all a long and boring read through how I actually came up with all this stuff, I'll try to keep the explanation as concise as possible! Appologies for the inevitable long-windedness though.
<table><tr><td width="200">Alliance Navy</td><td width="200">Army / SpecForce</td><td width="200">Starfighter Corps</td></tr><tr><td>Fleet Admiral</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Admiral</td><td>General</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Rear Admiral</td><td>(Lieutenant) General</td><td><s>Lieutenant</s> General</td></tr><tr><td>Commodore</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Line Captain</td><td>Brigadier</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Captain</td><td>Colonel</td><td>Colonel</td></tr><tr><td>Commander</td><td>Lieutenant Colonel</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Lieutenant Commander</td><td>Major</td><td>Major<br><s>Lieutenant</s> Commander</td></tr><tr><td>Lieutenant</td><td>Captain</td><td>Captain</td></tr><tr><td>Sub-Lieutenant</td><td>(First) Lieutenant</td><td>(Flight) Lieuenant</td></tr><tr><td>Ensign</td><td>Second Lieutenant</td><td>Flight Officer</td></tr></table>
That's a pretty confusing table: I'll explain it all a row at a time. Assume that everything on the same row is an equivalent rank.
Fleet Admiral
Fans has already established that the Supreme Commander of the Alliance Fleet is referred to as a Fleet Admiral. They also have jurisdiction over SpecForce and the Starfighter Corps (but not Intelligence) - not only does that make sense in terms of chain-of-command and logistics, but it also explains why Admiral Ackbar seems to be almost everyone's boss.
Admiral / General
An Admiral commands large fleets of ships, and acts as the Fleet Admiral's direct subordinate. The equivalent Army rank of General would be held by the officer in overall command of SpecForce: effectively, SpecForce is being treated as a "Fleet" in its own right. Because there aren't any fleet-sized Starfighter units (and since they'd all be based on a Starship, with a Navy Officer in overall command), there is no Starfighter Corps rank at this level.
Rear Admiral / (Lieutenant) General / General
A Rear Admiral usually commands a particular sub-group or squadron within a larger Fleet; an Admiral will usually have multiple Rear Admirals commanding elements of his Fleet. I skipped out Vice Admiral, since the Alliance Fleet isn't really big enough to warrant that many levels of command at this point.
The equivalent Army rank would be Lieutenant General; I'm using "Lieutenant" rather than "Major" General because it is the next rank down from General. (Major General is actually short for Sergeant-Major General incidentally, hence Major being junior to Lieutenant) A SpecForce General would probably command a Division (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Alliance_Special_Forces#Divisions), or a base (like Echo Base). Since there is only one General, SpecForce probably wouldn't bother using the Lieutenant prefix, save for when distinguishing between the two degrees of authority.
The Starfighter Corps does occasionally feature Generals, such as Horton Salm (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Horton_Salm) in the X-Wing series. Based on his example, a Starfighter General would likely command a planetary base, or a really big fighter unit.
Commodore
A Navy rank with no equivalent; generally used for flag officers commanding more than a single Line of ships - a Navy Squadron, or similar.
Line Captain / Brigadier
A rank only slightly above Captain, a Line Captain is used to designate the senior-most Captain in a Line of ships (usually around four). Similarly, Brigadier would be a rank slightly above Colonel (akin to an Imperial High Colonel) who is slightly more senior than the other Colonels. Would likely command large infantry units (in the absense of a General), or one of the Regiments (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Alliance_Special_Forces#SpecForce_Regiments) within a SpecForce Division, to ensure they outranked any Colonels that might be members of said Regiment.
Captain / Colonel / Colonel
I'm sure you all know what most of the ranks from here on in represent; I'll just point out the relevant specifics where required. A Starfighter Colonel would probably command a Fighter Group containing multiple wings, such as the 2 Wings / 6 Squadrons of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer.
Commander / Lieutenant Colonel
This one is quite easy. There is no equivalent Starfighter rank however; Major has been bumped down a step, as explained below.
Lieutenant Commander / Major / Major/Commander
Both Starfighter Major and Starfighter Commander are considered equivalent to an Army Major, and an Army Lieutenant Commander. The only distinction in authority comes from within the Starfighter Corps. In terms of rank evolution, a Starfighter <s>Lieutenant</s> Commander would have been created to fill the role of Squadron Leader. When multiple Squadrons operated together, one of those Commanders was selected to outrank the others (akin to Line Captain, Brigadier, etc), and was designated Major. It's a bit of a fudge, but it does help explain away the Commander/Major inversion.
Lieutenant / Captain / Captain
Not worth commenting on.
Sub-Lieutenant / (First) Lieutenant / (Flight) Lieutenant
To distinguish from other kinds of Lieutenant, Starfighter Lieutenants are occasionally referred to as a "Flight Lieutenant" in the EU. There are no EU references to anyone holding a rank called First Lieutenant; since Sub-Lieutenant and Flight Lieutenant are both British-based, referring to the rank as "Lieutenant" would seem appropriate. However, they can potentially be referred to as a First Lieutenant (by the Navy) in situations where confusion might arise.
Ensign / Second Lieutenant / Flight Officer
Ensign is the American name (in the Royal Navy, an Ensign is a type of flag); however, it's a bit less of a mouthful than the British "Acting Sub-Lieutenant". I've listed Second Lieutenant as the Army rank, but I do personally feel that Junior Lieutenant is more catchy. There isn't a Lieutenant JG rank in the Navy, so the possibility of confusion would be minimal; it also sounds more retro and sci-fi. But that's just personal preference. *shrug*