Colonels, not Admirals: new U.S. Space Force ranks will resemble Air Force, rather than Navy

The United States Space Force

FEBRUARY 3, 2021 - The United States Space Force has finally adopted a new rank structure. A report from Politico last week shared the details of the official ranks, which were first reported in Air Force Magazine and closely resemble that of the United States Air Force.

In 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives approved language in the annual defense policy bill which would require the Space Force to use U.S. Navy ranks, a move that William Shatner endorsed in an op-ed published last August in the Military Times. However, the Navy language was not present in the Senate version of the bill and was ultimately removed by Congress in the final version.

New Space Force ranks have been specified for both officers and enlisted personnel. While the rank structure largely follows that of the Air Force, they have made some changes. Following through on a pledge from Chief of Space Operations General John Raymond to create a gender-neutral rank structure, the U.S. Space Force will not be using the enlisted ranks of Airman Basic, Airman, Airman 1st Class and Senior Airman. Instead, the first four enlisted ranks will be Specialist 1, Specialist 2, Specialist 3 and Specialist 4, before continuing to Sergeants.

On the officer side, the lowest ranks will be Lieutenants, then Captains, Majors, Colonels, and finally Generals. At least we can expect to not have to deal with “badmirals”.

To read more about the new rank structure of the U.S. Space Force, head to Politico.com.

Working to confirm, but looks like new @SpaceForceDoD ranks are out: specialist instead of airman basic, etc. pic.twitter.com/8QSS0RXEaN

— Rachel S. Cohen (@rachelkaras) January 29, 2021