Editing Imperial Navy (section)

== Ranks in the Navy ==

While the Imperial Navy uses a lot of the ranks in similar fashion to modern militaries, they invariably hold to a more archaic form and are not equivalent to modern day ranking systems. Particularly since it's quite clear that commissions in 40k can often be purchased rather than earned, and that a "Warrant" would most likely hold to the original term and be an "officer by appointment" rather than an enlisted grade. Though considering the immense variety of units within the Imperium, this may not necessarily be the case galaxy-wide, so all options are equally valid. A competent naval academy or [[Schola Progenium]] graduate leading one ship and a glory hound who's daddy paid for another can serve on the same bridge. Also, the ship commander will generally be referred to as Captain internally for the sake of simplicity, except in Astartes fleets where they are called shipmasters to avoid confusion regarding the actual rank of Captain in the Astartes. Funnily, this practice among the Astartes is directly opposite to IRL Marine units, where Captains are known as Majors to avoid being confused with the actual Captain of the ship. Since they are not in the dirt, Navy officers look significantly more well dressed than Guard officers but can get scarred just like the ground pounding plebians. LT's and up in the Navy can be very creepy to look at. The smoking hot lieutenant commander in immaculate uniform with fancy frills and spotless [[Carapace Armor]] having half of her face missing and plated over with cybernetics along with her whole arm being replaced by bionics is not an uncommon sight. Ratings and below look more like standard sci-fi lower class cyborgs.

Like the Imperial Guard, the Imperial Navy has Commissars. They serve the exact same role they do in the Imperial Guard. They're outside the chain of command, they maintain discipline and punish traitors and mutineers, and they can in theory overrule or execute anyone, though it is much more difficult to put a bolt in a Navy Captain's head than a Guard Colonel. Much like guard regiments, not every ship in the navy will always have a Commissar aboard, but the ones likely to need them typically will.

=== Officer Ranks ===

*'''Lord-High Admiral of the Imperial Navy''' - This person is a [[High Lords of Terra|High Lord]] and is the person responsible for the '''ENTIRE''' Imperial Navy, though likely the post holder doesn't do much other than delegate to their subordinates and attend tedious High Lord meetings.
*'''Lord-High Admiral''' - There are five of these guys, one for each Segmentum. While they're probably never anywhere near the front lines they probably have more to do, since its their job to oversee the deployment of fleets and materials from sector to sector. That said, the non-canonical Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 game has Lord-High Admiral Spire personally leading Battlefleet Gothic around the Cadian sector from his flagship, even taking down some of the top-dogs of Abaddon's inner council.
*'''Lord Admiral''' - The guy in charge of a sector fleet who gets direct command of vessels and formations. You see these guys in the fluff quite regularly when "key" worlds ''(like Armageddon)'' need defended or attacked.
*'''Solar Admiral''' - Often a ''terminal'' rank... no really. Occasionally regular Admirals who do good jobs can put themselves forward for promotion to this position, which needs to be approved by the Lord-High Admiral of their Segmentum, then the officer needs to travel to Terra be reviewed by the Lord-High Admiral of the Imperial Navy. Obviously this can take a very, ''VERY'' long time to approve. So they might often be [[Grimdark|dead before the paperwork gets rubber-stamped]]. If they do get approved they are likely to get promoted straight up to sector commander (see Lord Admiral) as a position will probably have opened up while he was waiting. More rarely, Solar Admirals can get sent on "detached duties" which is basically a license to do as they please with their independent fleets. The fact they get approved implies that those who died waiting were rejected without being told.
*'''High Admiral''' - Commands several group of naval fleets (e.g. Battlegroups), often the most senior Navy officer in a Crusade but the things these fucks usually do is just having snacks with their Imperial Guard counterparts and leaving the combat duties to their subordinate Admirals
*'''Admiral''' - Gets put in charge of a fleet and told to oversee some subsectors. He's usually the highest of the "front line" ranks and much of his time will be on active duty patrolling his assigned region.
*'''Vice Admiral''' - Fleets traditionally get split into three parts, with the highest Admiral taking up the portion containing the larger ships, while the "Vice" Admiral takes the "Vanguard" portion of faster moving ships.
*'''Rear Admiral''' - the third portion of a fleet would be the "Rearguard" and usually gets assigned to the youngest/least experienced Admiral in the fleet. His job is usually the quietest one as he gets the mop-up and repair duties.
*'''Commodore''' - an experienced Captain in command of a squadron of capital ships. It's traditionally only a temporary rank, as capital ships don't always get assigned to each other the same way that escorts do. But the realities of war often mean that ships stay together for extended periods, often well beyond the lifespans of generations of captains.
*'''Lord Captain''' - not actually a rank, but an honourific applied to Captains of detached vessels operating independently. The '''"Lord-"''' part implies that they operate with the full authority of the Imperial Navy when they act so they can deal with outside organisations (like planetary governors, Space Marines or Imperial Guard) on relatively even footing. Sometimes also known by the more archaic term of "Flag-Captain", since as the commander of a detached vessel they figuratively carry their own flag.
*'''Captain''' The commander of a single capital ship or the lead starship in an escort squadron.
*'''Commander''' - Usually the commander of an escort vessel. Is also the ranking officer on board orbital space stations. It also gets used as the terminal rank amongst Pilots, since small attack craft all fall under the remit of the Navy; so a '''Wing Commander''' would get command over all pilots based on a single carrier.
*'''Lord Lieutenant''' - The second-in-command to captains of capital ships, bizarrely Commanders don't hold that role and hold their own positions. Thankfully because a chain of command exists in any military, despite a Wing Commander holding higher "actual" rank over a Lieutenant on a carrier vessel he would not hold any higher authority on that ship than his duties allow for. [[Fail|Sometimes this rank is known as Flag Lieutenant, which allows GW to once again show their incompetence as a Flag Lieutenant is actually an Admiral's aide-de-camp.]]
*'''Lieutenant''' - a "working" rank. Either holds command over small system vessels or acts as second in command to Commanders of escorts, or as department heads on Capital ships. They are also Squadron leaders amongst pilots.
*'''Sub-Lieutenant / Ensign''' - Team leaders or attack craft pilots.
*'''Midshipman''' - Apprentice officers who haven't passed any exams or earned any responsibility, they would exist below the Warrant Officers in terms of authority, despite holding a commission. Midshipmen are commissioned from Imperial Nobility as part of the [[Administratum|Imperial Tithe]] ''(which can mean virtually anyone gets the job if they send their useless heirs just to keep the best ones at home)'' but they are also assigned from the [[Schola Progenium]]. In addition, Midshipmen also may be taken on as a personal favour from the Captain of a vessel if he knows the family. This echoes the ancient real-world practice of young noblemen showing up while the vessel was in dock with a letter from their family and being granted a commission on the Captain's say-so.

=== NCO Ranks ===

*'''Ship Master''' - the most senior Warrant officer on board a starship, also quite possibly the busiest man on the starship. It's his job to maintain the logs, update stellar navigation charts, oversee ships stores and order supplies, and command a hangar deck if there is one. Basically he's the guy who knows the ship better than anyone. In real-world historical usage, this guy would have an authority equivalent to a Lieutenant on board a starship, and would "mess" ''(ie: occupy the same space)'' as the other officers do.
*'''Bosun''' - ''(Shorthand for Boatswain)'' The NCO directly responsible for all of the common crew members, including work planning, scheduling, training, and [[Commissar|enforcing discipline]]. Despite his position, his actual rank may vary depending upon the size of vessel or operational requirements, in practice it never really matters since he's unlikely to ever meet another Boatswain. ''(real-world Boatswains are typically petty officers or warrant officers, but could be of any rank. They held responsibility over all areas of the ship other than Engineering, which was left to the Chief Engineer, as if the bosun disciplined/executed/imprisoned a skilled crewman from that department the ship could be crippled because of it)''.
**Note that most Capital Ships, but not all Escort ships, may have an actual Naval [[Commissar]] on board in this role, tasked with maintaining discipline up to and [[Blam|including]] the Officer compliment.
*'''Chief Warrant Officer''' - Also called "Chief Petty Officer" on some vessels. Will often be given command of important ship sections ''(like Chief Engineers, helmsmen, or auspex control, as these are critical to ongoing operation of a starship)''
*'''Chief Enginseer''' - This one is complicated. The engineering section of Imperial Navy vessels falls under jurisdiction of the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], which maintains their own byzantine system of ranks among [[Techpriest|techpriests]]. The ranking member of the mechanicus contingent will have shipboard authority equivalent to a Lieutenant. However, on capital ships or vessels featuring archaotech systems, the leading techpriest may well be a full [[Magos]]. Similarly, on ships traveling into unexplored space the leading techpriest might be an Explorator slumming it as an enginseer to ride along.
*'''Chief Navigator''' - Another complicated position. Imperial navy vessels invariably host a small contingent of [[navigator|navigators]] to guide the vessel through the warp. In practice, navigators aboard naval vessels answer ONLY to the commanding officer and show zero deference to any other member of the crew. It's not unheard of for navigators to give crewmembers the warp eye for the slightest transgression; there are even rare cases of navigators demanding ratings or mutineers to sacrifice to complete their navigation rites. If a vessel has [[astropath|astropaths]] aboard, they too generally answer directly to the commanding officer, although they're usually less haughty about it.
*'''Chief Surgeon''': Leads the ship's medicae. Can't downcheck officers, that's the Commissariat's job. Usually a Militarum doctor, but occasionally will be a [[Sister Hospitaler]] if the ship is in a war and the crew are lucky enough for [[Sisters of Battle]] to be barracked aboard for the duration of the campaign, and even more rarely a [[Magos]] Biologis if they're exploring or the crew seriously lucked out on campaign.
*'''Warrant Officer''' - You'll find lots of guys of equivalent rank on a ship, in command of various operational sections keeping the ship running at all times:
**Masters of Ordnance - make certain that Torpedoes and Attack craft (if any) are fueled and maintained.
**Master Gunner - have responsibility over all of the weapons batteries through the Gun Captains and make sure they are loaded and fired when required.
**Master-at-Arms - responsible for all "small" arms on board a starship, overseeing all Sergeants-at-Arms, as well as maintaining order over any barracked Guard regiments currently in transit.
**Master of the Vox - making sense out of the bazillions of messages that run through the bridge at any given moment both internally and externally ''(crews can get pretty massive, and a lot of traffic can come through at once)''.
**Steward - the guy who keeps everyone else well fed.
*'''Gun Captain''' - Funnily enough, the man in charge of a single gun crew. Makes sure that the weapon is taken care of, is reloaded quickly enough, and <s>is accurate when asked to fire</s>, asking the local Enginseer to ensure the gun is accurate when asked to fire. All of that comes back to this guy. . .and the Enginseer.
*'''[[Navis Sergeant-At-Arms|Sergeant-at-Arms]]''' - Man in charge of the weapons lockers and leader of boarding parties, as well as maintaining ship-board security. Usually they are transferred from [[Imperial Guard]] regiments so that they don't have any prior association with the crew, though it likely depends from fleet to fleet. The Sergeants-At-Arms generally directly lead the elite Breacher squads.
*'''[[Voidsmen-at-Arms|Armsmen]]''' - Occasionally referred to as Voidsmen-at-Arms. Crewmen trusted to carry weapons. They train extensively with Lasguns, concussion grenades, and low caliber rotor cannons that are unlikely to chew up starship hulls, as well as getting to wear flak-armour. Since they are trusted more, they have slightly more freedom to move around the vessel as well. They are not [[Imperial Guard|true soldiers]] since offensive boarding actions tend to be rare, so these guys still have their own regular responsibilities on board ship, yet Armsmen can come from the common ratings all the way up to the Officer ranks. On some ships the crewmen really don't want the job, since it means they get scrutinised more, and they might be ordered to beat up their buddies. On other ships, they are set above the toiling classes and are necessary for keeping them in line.
**'''[[Imperial Navy Breachers|Breachers]]''' - the elite amongst the Armsmen who get to wear even heavier void-armour and carry nastier weapons like explosives and melta-guns that would otherwise be suicidal to use inside a starship. Not only are they the primary defensive contingent on board a ship, but they are also the go-to crew members if an enemy ship needs boarded or an [[Star Trek|away team]] is called upon.
*'''Voidsmen''' - the lowest rank of crewman on board a Naval Starship above the [[Servitor]]s unless the Captain is cool with slavery. If they have a skill or a trade they may be referred to as '''Able Voidsmen''' which is an official rank that might require examinations. Additionally, if they show leadership qualities they might be promoted to '''Leading Voidsman''' and put in charge of work gangs and be considered for promotion to Warrant Officer if a position opens up.