Italian Army officers military ranks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| NATO Code | OF-10 | OF-9 | OF-8 | OF-7 | OF-6 | OF-5 | OF-4 | OF-3 | OF-2 | OF-1 | OF-D- | Student Officer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Italy (Edit) |
|||||||||||||
 |
  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
No Equivalent | No Equivalent | |
| Maresciallo d'Italia1 |
Generale (Capo di S.M. Difesa) Generale (Capo di S.M. Esercito)2 | Tenente Generale | Maggiore Generale | Brigadiere Generale | Colonnello | Tenente Colonnello | Maggiore | Capitano | Tenente | Sottotenente | |||
| Abbreviation | Generale | Gen.CdA | Gen.Div. | Gen.Brig. | Col. | Ten.Col. | Magg. | Cap. | Ten. | S.Ten. | |||
| Pay grade | O-11 | O-10 | O-9 | O-8 | O-7 | O-6 | O-5 | O-4 | O-3 | O-2 | O-1 | ||
This chart represents the Italian Army officer rank insignia.
Officers who are assigned to a position attaining a higher rank wear the star of the higher rank with a red enamel. Similarly, officer temporarily assigned to a position attaining a higher rank in vacancy of the officer in charge, wear the star of the higher rank in bronze colour.
[edit] History
Italian Army officers used to wear the ranks on the sleeve, like Naval officers. Since 1946, insignia was changed in order to fulfill NATO regulations. In 1973 the system had the following slight change: the wreath was added to the stars for General Officers, instead of the silver epaulette; the crown was added to the stars for Field Officers, instead of a gold band on the edge of the epaulette; the stars began to be placed near the edge of the epaulette instead of in the center. These changes were mostly intended to make insignia easily recognizable on the Field Uniform.
