All of the Imperial Ranks in the ‘Star Wars’ universe

Fandom can be a tricky thing. The more people love something the more they’re going to want to know all about it. World-builders like J.R.R. Tolkien with The Lord of The Rings and George Lucas with Star Wars are prime examples. With Star Wars specifically, we have a whole taxonomy of ranks within the Imperial Empire.

Now, identifying the top ranks is easy, as it consists of Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, and of course, the Emperor. The lower ranks, on the other hand, require a bit of additional context. With the help of this organizational chart crafted by Reddit user King-Doran, as well as information gathered from both the movies and subsequent texts (Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary, and Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need To Know, Revised and Expanded), the task of identifying ranks is made doable.

There are two main branches of the Imperial armed forces: the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Army. Within those are sub-divisions and ancillary forces. Each service branch is identified by color. Navy and Army are gray, intelligence officers wear white, and stormtrooper officers wear black.

Another easy way to identify rank is with badges. A cadet in the Navy who just got out of the Imperial Academy would have a blue square on his or her uniform. From there, there are red and blue squares added to signify rank. Stormtroopers, meanwhile, do not wear badges.

Not as much attention was paid to badges and how they denote ranking when Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope came out in 1977, as no one could predict it would become the cultural phenomenon it has. Most attempts to correct this, notably in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, also inadvertently created some discrepancies.

Most of the new live-action shows, however, do a better job of keeping things organized. To make matters even more confusing, the era before and after the destruction of the Death Star had different badges; before they were single-layer tiles, and after they were vertically positioned with two stacks.

Pulling from all of these different sources, let’s go through all the ranks and list them.

Every Imperial Rank in the Star Wars universe

Starfighter Corps Ranks (Imperial Navy)

The Starfighter Corps, which consists of the TIE fighters, is the forward attack branch of the Imperial Navy. It was created after the Galactic Republic transitioned into the Galactic Empire.

• Ensign
• Second Lt
• First Lt
• Second Lt CDR
• Lt Commander
• Captain
• Senior Captain
• Major
• Senior Major
• Lt-Colonel
• Colonel
• Major General
• Lt. General
• General

Military Police (Imperial Navy)

The Navy Security Corps is the military police of the Imperial Navy.

• Ensign
• Sub-Lieutenant
• Lt. Junior Grade
• Lieutenant
• Senior Lt.
• Lt. Commander
• Commander
• Senior Commander
• Captain
• Senior Captain
• Vice Commodore
• Rear Admiral
• Vice Admiral
• Admiral

Navy Operations

Operations officers oversee the general running of a ship. They handle sensor operations, navigation, and communications. There are eight ranks in operations as opposed to up to 15 in some other branches.

• Ensign
• Sub-Lieutenant
• Lt. Junior Grade
• Lieutenant
• Commander
• Captain
• Commodore
• Rear Admiral
• Admiral

Imperial Navy Line

These are your up-the-middle Imperial Navy staff.

• Ensign
• Sub-Lieutenant
• Lt. Junior Grade
• Lieutenant
• Senior Lieutenant
• Lieutenant Commander
• Commander
• Senior Commander
• Captain
• Senior Captain
• Vice Commodore
• Commodore
• Rear Admiral
• Vice Admiral
• Admiral

Imperial Navy Command Staff

The command staff is comprised of officers who are in charge of the Imperial Navy as a whole.

• Fleet Ensign
• Fleet Lieutenant Junior Grade
• Fleet Lieutenant
• Fleet Commander
• Fleet Captain
• Fleet Admiral
• Grand Admiral

Those were all the sections of the Imperial Navy. Let’s move on to the Army.

Imperial Army Military Police

The Imperial MP serve the same function as its counterpart in the Navy: keep the peace and punish within its ranks.

• Ensign
• First Lieutenant
• Lieutenant
• Captain
• Major
• Colonel
• Major General
• General

Imperial Army Operations

Soldiers in this branch are involved more in desk work and administrative tasks than battle officers and ground troops.

• Ensign
• First Lieutenant
• Lieutenant
• Captain
• Major
• Colonel
• Major General
• General

Imperial Army Line

These are the ground troops and the tip of the spear of the Empire, so to speak. They are the ones who get their hands dirty on the ground and also have terrible aim.

• Ensign
• Second Lieutenant
• First Lieutenant
• Lieutenant
• Senior Lieutenant
• Captain Lieutenant
• Captain
• Senior Captain
• Major
• Senior Major
• Lieutenant Colonel
• Colonel
• Major General
• Lieutenant General
• General

Imperial Army Command Staff

The command staff oversees Imperial Army missions and operations, assigns battalions, and comes up with battle plans.

• Sector Ensign
• Sector First Lieutenant
• Sector Lieutenant
• Sector Captain
• Sector Major
• Sector General
• Grand General

The Imperial Ruling Council

Last on the list is the ruling council and the head of the Imperial Government. Instead of uniforms, they wear colorful, loose-fitting robes and very noticeable hats. The council has direct access to Emperor Palpatine and handles the day-to-day operations of the Empire. There are only four ranks at the top.

• Moff
• Grand Moff
• Advisor
• Grand Vizier
• Emperor

Finally, one organization that we haven’t broken down is the Imperial Intelligence branch of the Empire. It’s a spy organization and its officers generally wear white uniforms. We don’t have a rank structure but it has six main branches: Analysis, Adjustments, the Bureau of Operations, Intelligence, the Internal Organization Bureau, and lastly Sector Plexus. This is the organization that houses the Death Troopers and the Imperial Information Office, which we saw a lot of in Andor.