Space Force rolls out ranks with similarities to Air Force

Military branch set-up by Donald Trump makes ranking announcement with gender neutral titles

The United States’ Space Force has rolled out a ranking structure with many similarities to the Air Force.

A memo sent out to personnel on Friday and shared on social media announced the Space Force’s ranking structure, which appeared to follow that of the Air Force.

The memo, which was first reported by Air Force Magazine, was said to be confirmed as authentic by multiple outlets on Friday.

While the structures are similar, the Air Force and Space Force will differ with the first four ranks for personnel being named Specialist 1, Specialist 2, Specialist 3 and Specialist 4.

Service members in the Space Force, who are referred to as “guardians”, will serve in those four ranks as specialists, while in the Air Force, the first four ranks are airmen.

That decision follows Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond's pledge to have a ranking structure that was gender-neutral and avoided use of the word “man”, as with “airmen”, Politico reported.

The remaining ranks will remain the same, which are sergeant, technical sergeant, master sergeant, senior master sergeant, and so on.

By settling on the ranking structure revealed on Friday, the Space Force appeared to diverge from the will of  some House Republicans who wanted the new military branch to follow the structure of the US Navy.

The Senate removed an amendment by Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Navy SEAL veteran, from an annual defence policy bill last year that would have required the Space Force to use Navy ranks. It was decided that the branch should decide for itself.

There was also public interest in the Space Force announcement after William Shatner, who played James T. Kirk in “Strek Trek” - whose logo bears some resemblance to the military branch - also called on the Space Force to use Navy ranks.

He wrote in an op-ed for the Military Times in August: “What the heck is wrong with you? “There was no Colonel Kirk; not even in the mirror universe (which is what 2020 feels like at times.) Do you know your entertainment space history?”

The Space Force, which was set-up by former president Donald Trump in December 2019 and has been widely parodied by social media users and by a Netflix series of the same name, has also adopted a motto, and was first deployed to the Middle East last year.