I am familiar with the US rank structure, from 2nd Lt. to 4-star General and from Ensign to Full Admiral, Can someone please tell me what is the rank structure of the RAF? I guess an Air Vice Marshall would be a General in the US military and a Group Captain (Mandrake from the film Dr. Strangelove) would be a Colonel, but I have no idea what is a Flight Leader or Squadron Leader or a Wing Commander. Thanks.
share
Pilot Officer (Second Lieutenant)
Flying Officer (First Lieutenant)
Flight Lieutenant (Pronounced Lef'tenant) (Captain)
Squadron Leader (Major)
Wing Commander (Lieutenant Colonel)
Group Captain (Colonel)
Air Commodore (Brigadier General)
Air Vice-Marshall (Major General)
Air Marshall (Lieutenant General)]
Air Chief Marshall (General)
Marshall of the Royal Air Force (General of the Air Force)
[deleted]
A slight oddity (if the rank names were not odd enough for you) is that I believe that all members of pathfinder squadrons held ranks one higher than their level of command. For example if a "normal" squadron was commanded by a Squadron Leader, then a pathfinder squadron was commanded by a Wing Commander. There is no indication what mythical 633 squadron was designated as, but we know it was a squadron commanded by a Wing Commander.
NB in modern times, an RAF squadron would be commanded by a higher rank than a Squadron Leader for various reasons.
All Bomber Command squadrons were commanded by Wing Commanders, flights in those squadrons were commanded by Squadron Leaders. Maybe because of the numbers of aircrew involved?
shareAll Bomber Command squadrons were commanded by Wing Commanders, flights in those squadrons were commanded by Squadron Leaders. Maybe because of the numbers of aircrew involved?
The RAF decided upon its creation to mirror naval rather than army ranks, therefore a captain became a Flight Lieutenant (equivalent to a navy leiutenant), a Lt Colonel become a Wing Commander (equivalent to a navy commander) and a Colonel became a Group Captain (equivalent to a navy captain).
Today these ranks make less sense, for example a squadron is rated the equivalent of an army battalion in NATO and therefore all RAF squadrons today are commanded by Wing Commanders rather than Squaron Leaders.
It's even more confusing when you think of an air wing being larger than an air group and consequently it makes more sense for a wing commander to outrank a group captain.
Your replies will be graded and possibly used as material in future projects.
No, in the USAF organisation in Squadron > Group > Wing.
in the RAF organisation is Squadron > Wing > Group. So it makes perfect sense to us in the UK.
All bomber/ light bomber squadrons would have a higher rank as commanding officer as there were more aircrew and ground crew assigned to the squadron. As such for a squadron like 633 a flight leader would actually be a Squadron Leader.
sharetop marks to one of the other posters with a complete list (and the USAF equivalent)
A few remaining sweep-ups:
A Flight Leader (along with section leader) was an appointment, rather than a rank, so (in WW2, at least) a flight leader could have been a Pilot Officer, Flying Officer or Flight Lieutenant, dependent on the squadron (typically, a squadron would have two or more flights, while there would have been a number of sections within each flight)
Also, there were Non-Commissioned Officers as aircrew back then, so there were Sergeant, Flight Sergeant and Master Aircrew ranks - it was possible for a Sgt (pilot) to be a bomber crew captain, even if he was not the most senior rank (the RAF today no longer has NCO pilots, but still has NCO aircrew; the Army Air Corps, though, still has NCO pilots, in addition to Officer pilots)
HTH
Odd though, that 'Squadron Leader Adams', called Wing Cmdr Roy Grant 'Grant' i.e. just by his surname, when Grant outranks him, slight boo-boo! (When, after the training runs he said: 'You had a good day, Grant'.
share