Swedish Army rank insignia

The lineup of Swedish rank insignia is normalized to reflect levels of responsibility, experience and seniority. It disregards pure phonemic translations and whether the holder of a rank is an officer, warrant officer, staff non-commissioned officer, non-commissioned officer. The rationale of the approach is that the term officer is very ambiguous across nations and should be avoided. Ranks do play an important role in battle when subordinates run into uncertainty regarding whose order to honor, which often occur. To phonetically translate ranks of personnel sent abroad may cause commands of less senior to surpass commands of more senior leaders as well as ohter undesireable side effects.

This is a first attempt to achieve a fair translation of ranks and I hope that the community can improve the page further so that it may be promoted to a regular page. The chart appears distorted, but this is the effect after several reforms at the ministry of defense to make all military personnel including NCO, Staff NCO, WO and CO to have the rank of Fanrik and above as well as categorized as officers. The term officer in Sweden means a person who has military as a profession, which is the same as all police men are called officers in the USA. Note. I am not the one who originally designed the page and most of the work on the page is contributed by another fellow. - Malin Randstrom Tokyo/Japan

Officer Insignia

NATO Code²	OF-10	OF-9	OF-8	OF-7	OF-6		OF-5	OF-4	OF-3 OF-2	OF-1	OR-7	OR-6
Troop Formation	General Persons Generalpersoner					Regiment Commanders Regementsbefäl				Platoon Leaders Kompanibefäl|-
	Fältmarskalk1
		General	Lieutenant General Generallöjtnant	Major General Generalmajor	Brigadier General Brigadgeneral	Colonel First Class Överste av första graden³	Colonel Överste	Lieutenant Colonel Överstelöjtnant	Major/Captain 6Major	Lieutenant7 Kapten	Sergeant First Class8 Löjtnant	Staff Sergeant9 Fänrik
Abbreviation		Gen					Öv	ÖvLt	Mj	Kn	Lt	Fk
1 Honorary/War time rank. Last appointment in 19th centurary. ² Sweden is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Thus this comparison is not official and may not be accurate. ³ As of June 1 2000, No one can longer be appointed Colonel First Class, or Överste av första graden. The rank Brigadier General, or Brigadgeneral, is used instead. However, already appointed Colonel First Class was not automatically promoted, thus Colonel First Class will continue to exist until those persons are either retired or promoted. 5 Conscripts doing their conscription as Company Commander students (Kompanibefälselever, or Värnpliktiga Chefer) is appointed Staff Sergeant (Värnpliktig Fänrik) after his/hers completed service period (usually 15 months). Company Comander School KBS will change name to Platoon Commander School PBS and graduates will be appointed Sergeants. Despite the name, most students will be trained as squad leaders and a smaller portion as deputy platoon commanders. 6responsibility and seniority as a captain. OF-3 and Major, in case the person is a XO of a Battalion 7responsibility and seniority between 1st and 2nd Lieutenant. 8the community is debating whether to translate the rank to US-Army equivalent Sergeant First Class, to better correspond to seniority and responsibility levels of other nations 9the community is debating whether to translate the rank to US-Army equivalent Staff Sergeant, to better correspond to seniority and responsibility levels of other nations

Officer and Enlisted Insignia

NATO Code²	OR-9	OR-8	OR-7	OR-6	Officer Students		OR-5			OR-4	OR-3	none		OR-2	OR-1
Troop Formation	Platoon Leaders						Squad Leaders			Team Leaders	Cavalry man Specialist	-
													No insigna		No insignia
		Master Sergeant3 Kapten	Sergeant First Class3 Löjtnant	Staff Sergeant3 Fänrik	Cadet 2nd Year Kadett 2 året4	Cadet 1st Year Kadett 1 året4		Sergeant Sergeant		Corporal Furir	Private First Class Furir	Trainee Korpral2	Private Menig		Private Menig
Abbreviation		Kn	Lt	Fk				Sgt		Fu	Fu	Krp		Vpl	Vpl
A swedish squad consists of 6-8 men; and is smaller than an American squad, which consists of 9-13 men A swedish team consists of 3-4 men; an american of 4. 2 rank after 6 or 8 months of basic training and two months prior promotion to Furir 3 There is some consensus in the community that Lojtnant corresponds to a Sergeant First Class; however, considering that it takes ten more years for an American officer to reach the rank, it would be fair to rank Lojtnat below Sergeant First Class. Similarly, it is fair to rank Fanrik below Staff Sergeant 5, considering a five years difference in experience. 4 Cadets have the same formal rank as a Sergeant. Because of this they're not uncommonly called Angle Sergants (or Vinkelserganter), because of the angled lines. Officer Students are High School graduates with 10 months of basic military training, who are required to spend two years earning a college associate degree. First year two angles, second year three angles. Having an associate degree is also a requirement for becoming a Staff Non Commissioned Officer in the US. ² Sweden is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Thus this comparison is not official and may not be accurate. 5 This refers to a Staff Sergeant in the US Army. Staff Sergeants in the BA and the USMC are ranked higher.