Rank insignia of the Galactic Empire

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Rank Insignia of the Galactic Empire refers to badges of military rank that are displayed in the Star Wars feature films, worn by Imperial Navy and Army officers. The insignia shown in the three major motion pictures, whose pattern and system was never established in a canon publication or by live action dialogue, has since become a major point of speculation, conjecture, and entertainment by Star Wars fans.

1 Officer Ranks
2 Enlisted Ranks
3 Stormtroopers
4 Imperial Security Bureau
5 Additional Information
6 Insignia Sources
7 See also

[edit] Officer Ranks

Main article: List of Galactic Empire ranks

In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Imperial officers of the Galactic Empire wear insignia consisting of a collection of colored (red, blue, yellow, orange, or white) rank squares on the left breast of the officer's uniform with a combination of several metal cylinders to both or one side of the rank badge. The color system was used from the start of the Imperial Navy, in which officers had an unequal number of squares (as seen in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith). By the time frame of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, the rank squares have become a much simpler collection of red and blue squares with the code cylinders still in use.

In the films, most Imperial officers are addressed as "commander", the exceptions being Grand Moff Tarkin, Admirals Ozzel and Piett and Captain Needa (Tarkin is also referred to with the non-military title "governor", and Piett, before his promotion, is also referred to by his previous rank of "captain"). With such generic terms, the Star Wars films give little hint to a system of ranks and insignia.

[edit] Enlisted Ranks

Imperial enlisted personnel have never been shown to have any type of insignia, but do have various types of uniforms. The uniforms appear to range from soldiers and technicians, to sergeants and naval non-commissioned officers, as well as warrant officers and command sergeants. Each of these groups is shown in the feature films to have various types of uniforms but never have been shown wearing any type of identifying insignia.

[edit] Stormtroopers

Imperial stormtroopers apparently use the same rank system as the Imperial Army, but rarely wear any type of outward insignia. One significant exception to this is in The Empire Strikes Back, in which a stormtrooper attacking Echo Base wears the insignia of an army captain on his armor. The Star Wars Visual Dictionary states that the orange shoulder pads worn by some stormtroopers scouring Tatooine for R2-D2 and C-3PO serve as some sort of rank insignia. Officers wear orange pads, Mounted wear Grey, NCO's white, while those of the privates are black.

[edit] Imperial Security Bureau

Members of the Imperial Security Bureau, or the "ISB", appear only in A New Hope wearing white uniforms: an ISB colonel attends the conference aboard the Death Star, and two ISB non-commissioned officers walk past the Death Star elevator area. In both cases, the ISB personnel wear rank insignia similar to that of Imperial Army and Navy personnel.

The insignia scheme in A New Hope creates an ambiguity in that the film shows some Imperial characters who apparently have the same rank and position, yet display different insignia. This problem recurs in the Expanded Universe in that Imperial officers of the same rank wear different insignia.

[edit] Additional Information

In Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, a wardrobe problem resulted in all Imperial characters wearing the same insignia, being that of an Imperial Navy Commander. Thus, the Imperial insignia in Return of the Jedi are often ignored. A post-production error in The Empire Strikes Back caused the frames from the scene on the bridge of the Executor to be reversed; prior to the film's DVD release, characters at first appear to wear their rank insignia over the right (i.e. incorrect) breast.^{[citation needed]}

The rank of grand admiral is first mentioned in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire and is considered the Imperial military's senior-most rank. Grand admirals, and their Imperial Army counterparts, "grand generals", are authorized to wear white uniforms with gold shoulder boards, in addition to the standard badge of rank. Similarly, the Director of Imperial Intelligence wears a crimson uniform as a badge of office.

The Empire Strikes Back demonstrates that the Imperial Navy and Army, while using the same rank badges, differentiate between the two services by the spacing of the colored squares on the badge itself. Imperial Army officers use rank badges with thin rank squares on a grey metal frame, while Navy officers display flush rank squares with no spacing in between.