Air Chief Marshal (
Air Chf Mshl
or
ACM) is a senior
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".
Seniority
Air Chief
Marshal is a 4 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 States.
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.
Origins
Prior to the adoption of RAF-specific rank titles in 1919, it was
suggested that the RAF might use the
Royal
Navy's officer ranks, with the word "Air" inserted before the
naval rank title. For example, the rank that later became Air Chief
Marshal would have been Air Admiral. The
Admiralty objected to any use of their rank
titles, including this modified form, and so an alternative
proposal was put forward:
Air Officer
ranks would be based on the term "Ardian", which was derived from a
combination of the
Gaelic words
for "chief" (
ard) and "bird" (
eun), with the
unmodified word "Ardian" being used specifically for the equivalent
to full Admiral and General. However, Air Chief Marshal was
preferred and was adopted on 1 August 1919. The rank was first used
on 1 April 1922 with the promotion of
Sir Hugh Trenchard.
With Trenchard's promotion to Marshal of the RAF on 1 January 1927,
no officer held the rank until Sir
John
Salmond was promoted on 1 January 1929. It has been used
continuously ever since.
Royal Air Force usage
In the RAF, the rank of Air Chief Marshal is held by the current
Chief of the Air
Staff and the Commander-in-Chief of
Air Command. Additionally, RAF officers
serving in British
4 star rotational
posts hold the rank. Throughout the history of the RAF, in excess
of 130 RAF officers have held the rank and it also been awarded in
an honorary capacity to senior members of the
British Royal Family and allied foreign
monarchs.
The rank insignia consists of three narrow light blue bands (each
on a slightly wider black band) over a light blue band on a broad
black band. This is worn on the both the lower sleeves of the
service dress jacket or on the shoulders of the flying suit or the
casual uniform. The command flag for an RAF Air Chief Marshal is
defined by the two broad red bands running through the centre of
the flag. The vehicle star plate for an RAF Air Chief Marshal
depicts four white stars (Air Chief Marshal is a four star rank) on
an air force blue background.
Image:UK-Air-OF9.svg|An RAF Air Chief Marshal's sleeve/shoulder
insigniaFile:File-UK-Air-OF9-mess-insignia.svg|An RAF Air Chief
Marshal's mess sleeve insigniaImage:UK-Air-OF9-Flag.svg|An RAF Air
Chief Marshal's command flagImage:Air Chief Marshal star
plate.svg|An RAF Air Chief Marshal's star plate
Other air forces
English-speaking countries
The rank of Air Chief Marshal is also used in the air forces of
many countries which have English as an official language and were
under British influence around the time their air force was
founded. This includes many the air forces of many
Commonwealth countries. Officers
have served in the rank of Air Chief Marshal in the
Indian Air Force,
Nigerian Air Force,
Pakistan Air Force,
Royal Australian Air Force,
Sri Lanka Air Force and the
Air Force of Zimbabwe. It is
also maintained as a rank in the
Bangladesh Air Force,
Ghana Air Force and
Royal New Zealand Air Force but
not all of these air forces have ever actually used it.
Indian Air Force
The first Indian Air Force officer to hold the rank of air chief
marshal was
Arjan Singh who was promoted
in the second half of the 1960s while he served as
Chief of Air Staff. Since that
time all Indian air chiefs have held the rank. From the 1960s to
2009, 16 Indian chiefs of the air staff have held the rank.
Pakistan Air Force
In March 1976, as part of a Pakistani Defence Ministry
reorganization, the post of
Chief of Air Staff, the head
of the Pakistan Air Force, was upgraded from air marshal to air
chief marshal rank.
Zulfiqar Ali
Khan was the first head of the Pakistan Air Force to hold the
rank and in total from 1976 to 2009 there have been 11 Pakistani
air chiefs who have held the rank.
Originally, a Pakistani air chief marshal's rank insignia was
essentially the same as the RAF insignia. In 2006 the Pakistan Air
Force changed the rank insignia for its officers, abandoning the
ring insignia in favour of an Turkish Army-style featuring four
stars and a crossed swords and laurel device.
Royal Australian Air Force
An Australian Air Chief Marshal's rank
insignia
In Australia, this rank is only used when the
Chief of the Defence
Force (CDF) is an Air Force officer. When this is not the case,
the senior ranking Air Force officer is the
Chief of Air Force, holding
the rank of
Air
Marshal.
With the establishment of the Australian Air Board on 9 November
1920, Australian Air Corps officers dropped their army ranks in
favour of those based on the Royal Air Force. However, it was not
until 1965 when
Sir Frederick
Scherger became Chairman of the Australian Chiefs of Staff
Committee, and was promoted to Air Chief Marshal that an RAAF
officer attained the rank. Throughout the history of the RAAF, only
three of its officers have held the rank. Apart from Scherger, they
are
Sir Neville McNamara (in 1982)
and
Angus Houston, the current Chief
of the Australian Defence Force.
Royal Canadian Air Force
The
Royal Canadian Air
Force used this rank until the 1968 unification of the
Canadian Forces, when Army-type rank titles
after the American pattern were adopted and an Air Chief Marshal
became a
General. Throughout the
history of the Royal Canadian Air Force, only two officers held
this rank:
Lloyd Samuel
Breadner and
Frank Robert
Miller. In official French Canadian usage, the rank title was
maréchal en chef de l'air.
Use in non-English-speaking countries
The rank of Air Chief Marshal is also sometimes used as the English
translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a
non-English air force-specific rank structure. In such situations,
it is sometimes the case that the non-English rank might also be
translated as "general". Nonetheless, it is commonly found in
English translations relating to officers in the following air
forces:
Image:Hellenic Air Force OF-9.svg|A Hellenic Air Force air chief
marshal's rank insigniaImage:Thai air O9.png|A Royal Thai Air Force
air chief marshal's rank insignia
Notable air chief marshals
See also
References and notes
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