- published: 23 Mar 2015
- views: 4288
Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a 4-star air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force (RAF). The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. Officers in the rank of air chief marshal typically hold very senior appointments such as the air force or armed forces commander in those nations which have significant military capability. An air chief marshal may be described generically as an "air marshal".
Air Chief Marshal is a four-star rank and has a NATO ranking code of OF-9. An Air Chief Marshal is equivalent to a "full" Admiral or a "full" General in the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere.
The rank of Air Chief Marshal is immediately senior to the rank of Air Marshal but subordinate to Marshal of the Royal Air Force (or other national equivalent - see Marshal of the Air Force). Although no RAF officer has been promoted to Marshal of the Royal Air Force since the British defence cuts of the 1990s, British Air Chief Marshals are not the most senior officers in the RAF as several officers continue to retain the RAF's highest rank. These officers are still to be found on the RAF's active list even though they have for all practical purposes retired. A similar situation also exists in the Indian Air Force as the honorary promotion of Arjan Singh to Marshal of the Indian Air Force in 2002 resulted in Indian Air Chief Marshals no longer being the most senior IAF officers.
The ranks of Marshal of a branch (Russian: Маршал рода войск, Marshal roda voisk) and Chief Marshal of a branch (Russian: Главный Маршал рода войск, Glavni Marshal roda voisk) were senior military ranks of the Soviet Armed Forces. Immediately above the rank "Marshal of a branch" is the rank "Chief Marshal of a branch". Both ranks are immediately above the rank "Colonel General" and equal to Soviet General of the Army. The ranks were created as an analog to Air Marshal and Air Chief Marshal, though they weren't used just in the Soviet Air Force but also in the several Soviet Army's branch commands.
The ranks of Marshal of the Aviation, Artillery and Armoured Troops branches were established on February 4, 1943 with a large, approximately 50mm wide, shoulder board star (the same star as the at-the-time equivalent rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union's shoulder board star). When the rank of Chief Marshal was established on October 27, 1943, the size of the shoulder board's stars for Marshals was made about 10mm smaller establishing the superiority of the Marshal of the Soviet Union insignia. Also, on October 27, 1943 the ranks of Marshal of the branches Engineer Troops and Signals were established. On the uniform tie, Marshals wore the marshal's star of the 2nd level.