UK Royal Space Force

[Lord Cybran]

Hello all,

As everyone here knows, the US have established a Space Force, which uses ranks that are loosely based on USAF's.

My bet is that the United Kingdom, the main political and military ally of the US, is the next country to implement a Space Force, and that it will have ranks which are similar to RAF's.

The Royal Space Force (RSF) I'm envisioning here has ranks which are strongly based on current RAF's, replacing "Air" and "Aircraft" with "Space".

Enlisted

E-1 - Spaceman
E-2 - Leading Spaceman
E-3 - Senior Spaceman
E-3 - Senior Spaceman (Technician)
E-4 - Lance Corporal
E-5 - Corporal
E-6 - Sergeant
E-6 - Chief Technician
E-6 - Sergeant Spacecrew
E-7 - Flight Sergeant
E-7 - Flight Sergeant Spacecrew
E-8 - Warrant Officer
E-8 - Master Spacecrew

Officers

O-1 - Pilot Officer
O-2 - Flying Officer
O-3 - Flight Lieutenant
O-4 - Squadron Leader
O-5 - Wing Commander
O-6 - Group Captain
O-7 - Space Commodore
O-8 - Space Vice-Marshal
O-9 - Space Marshal
O-10 - Space Chief Marshal
O-11 - Marshal of the Space Force

I still couldn't come up with an insignia chart. I'm open to ideas.

At first, I thought about using basically the same chart as RAF's with only changing some colors (dark grey background for everyone; silver foreground for enlisted; officer stripes light blue in the edges and silver in the middle). But then I realized this wouldn't work perfectly, as RAF's junior enlisted badges are propellers with 2 or 3 blades (according to rank), and spacecraft never used propellers...

The only thing I could get into my head right now is using diagonal stripes for E-2 and E-3 (1 for E-2 and 2 for E-3, with E-3 Technician having an arrowhead on top of the stripes), and for E-6 Chief Technician replacing the propeller with an arrowhead.

[Lord Cybran]

Okay guys, first rank chart, based on first post.

[Helios88]

Okay guys, first rank chart, based on first post.

As today, is the Royal Navy in charge for UK military space activities?

[Lord Cybran]

Okay guys, first rank chart, based on first post.

As today, is the Royal Navy in charge for UK military space activities?

According to Wikipedia article about the RAF, the UK Space Command is a part of it.

United Kingdom Space Command (UKSC), established 1 April 2021 under the command of Air Vice-Marshal Paul Godfrey is a joint command, but sits "under the Royal Air Force."[69] Godfrey is of equal rank to the commanders of 1, 2, 11, and 22 Groups. The new command has "responsibility for not just operations, but also generating, training and growing the force, and also owning the money and putting all the programmatic rigour into delivering new ..capabilities."[69] UKSC headquarters is at RAF High Wycombe co-located with Air Command.[70]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Air_Force

Not sure whether there is any chance of the UKSC become an independent force in the same way as the US Space Command (which was part of the USAF) became the US Space Force. Most probably not within this decade; maybe in a not-so-far future...

[Medic_in_Uniform]

UK Space Command was established as a joint command, but currently resides with the RAF. Given the limited size of the UK space mission, I can't see this being likely to change and I think it's extremely unlikely ever to become an independent service in its own right.

https://www.raf.mod.uk/what-we-do/uk-space-command/


These may be of interest:

The new UK "Space Operator" badge:

"The design is based upon the Airborne Specialist badge and features a single silver angled wing and a blue laurel surrounding a delta, an orbit ellipse and a constellation of stars representative of Aries, as UK Space Command was formed on 1st April which equates to Aries in the celestial calendar."

The badge may be awarded to members of any of the UK's defence services.