Compared to the Earth Alliance military structure in Babylon 5,

the (fleet of the) Galactic Empire in Star Wars (certainly

between ‘A New Hope’ and ‘The Empire Strikes Back’) is of a

similar size, but unlike in B5 the ‘Army’ (Stormtroopers) is

apparently incorporated into the (Space) Navy. For the sake

of argument I am not ignoring any ‘Clone Troopers’ that may

still be alive, but they are assumed to be all of NCO rank. The

different divisions of ‘troopers do not outrank one another as

such but I am assuming that there is a hierarchy in a similar

way to the way Roman legionaries had higher status to

Auxiliaries, to Navy, to Irregulars. General is below Captain

and can be treated as an NCO, only having authority over

(non-Naval) ‘troopers, while Planetary Governors have no

authority over Naval Officers (assumption).

Hierarchy:

1. Grand Admiral

2. Grand Moff

3. Moff

4. Admiral

5. Planetary Governor

6. Captain

7. General

8. Naval Officers/Troopers/Pilots

9. Special Forces-Sand/Snow/Space/BCN Troopers

10. Stormtroopers-Volunteers/Veterans

11. Naval Cadets

12. Stormtroopers-Conscripts

13. Naval Cadets

14. Technician 1^st class

15. Technician 2^nd class (volunteer)

16. Technician 2^nd class (conscript)

For arguments sake it is probably best to avoid confusion

by appointing Earth-military ranks below that of command

rank as this would create a confusing situation where the

equivalent of ‘Colonel’ is below that of ‘Ensign’.

This is a list of Earthforce ranks according to the unofficial

Babylon 5 technical manual:

http://www.b5tech.com/misctech/earthforcerank/earthforcerank.html

Note that Army ranks are not listed as such but ranks such

as ‘Warrant Officer” are mentioned which could cover

Stormtroopers , although I’d imagine that there’d be several

ranks available.

It is likely that the Imperial Navy encompasses rank

equivalents to Earth Army, Navy and Air Force ranks.

Here is a list of non-commissioned Royal Air Force ranks:

http://www.raf.mod.uk/structure/noncommissioned.cfm

From which we could extrapolate the non-commissioned

ranks in the while using mostly (U.S) Naval ranks for

commissioned officers.

Junior Technician Jnr Tech Corporal Cpl Sergeant Sgt

Chief Technician Chf Tech Flight Sergeant FS Warrant Officer WO

Ranks like ‘Ensign’ and ‘General’ can be considered honorific,

but we must bear in mind that promotion in the Imperial Navy

would bypass several training-specific positions (a Technician

would not become a Stormtrooper, a Stormtrooper would not

become a Pilot, although some would be trained as Speeder

pilots etc). Presumably, ‘Warrant Officer’ would be the lowest

rank for a pilot and the highest for a ‘trooper, Chief Technician

would be equivalent to Ensign (and an individual would have

that title if he/she was a Bridge Officer), ‘Flight Sergeant’ would

be replaced with the title ‘Deck Sergeant’, Specialist

Stormtroopers (termed ‘Special Forces’) would be ranked above

Corporal, while the rank itself would cover Naval Cadets and

Volunteer Stormtroopers, finally ‘Technician’ would refer to

Conscripted Stormtroopers and all classes of Technician

1. (lowest rank) Technician (all classes)

2. Corporal

3. Sergeant

4. Chief Technician

5. Deck Sergeant

6. Warrant Officer (equiv. Ensign?)

7. Lieutenant (jnr and full)

8. Lieutenant-Commander

9. Commander (equiv. General?)

10. Captain (equiv. Planetary Governor?)

11. Admiral

12. Moff

13. Grand Moff

14. Grand Admiral (highest rank)

The military situation is a reflection of the events after the

Battle of Yavin, when most of the highest-ranking officers

on the Imperial Army were killed, along with presumably many

Clone Troopers (and their descendants) who constructed and

manned the first Death Star, and priority was given to the

Imperial Navy (who’s history goes back to the pre-Clone

Wars Republic). Based on ‘Revenge of the Sith’ and ‘A New

Hope’, which shows a dominance of Clone Troopers in the

first and Army dominance of the Death Star in the second,

it would appear that the Army (former GAR, Grand Army of the

Republic) and Navy are separate competing entities in the

Empire’s infancy, while references by Grand Admiral Thrawn

in the Extended Universe indicate a change in emphasis towards

the Imperial Navy away from the centralized tactics assumed

by use of Terror Weapons like the Death Star. This could be

due to the two bodies’ histories as the GAR is a product of the

Clone Wars and, apart from having Jedi as Generals, is a project

of Chancellor (then Emperor) Palpatine, while, initially, the Navy

was Commanded by those loyal to the Old Republic. Planetary

and Sector Governors are probably political roles reserved for

Palpatine loyalists, with the highest rank being Grand Moff,

presumably the incumbents have some command experience.

It is difficult to ascertain which rank Darth Vader has, certainly

he is above Admiral in the chain of command but he defers to

Grand Moff Tarkin in ‘A New Hope’. The Grand Admirals are

twelve tactical geniuses, presumably promoted from Admiral

to avoid giving them positions of political authority.

Imperial Hierarchy post-Yavin

1. Emperor

2. Grand Admiral

3. Grand Moff

4. Moff

5. Admiral

6. Planetary Governor

7. Captain

8. General

9. Lieutenant-Commander

10. Commander

11. Full Lieutenant

12. Lieutenant junior grade

13. Ensign

14. Warrant Officer

15. Deck Sergeant

16. Chief Technician

17. Sergeant

18. Corporal

19. Technician 1^st class

20. Technician 2^nd class