Group captain Group captain Group captain is a senior commissioned rank in many air forces. Group captain has a NATO rank code of OF-5, meaning that it ranks above wing commander, immediately below air commodore and is the equivalent of the naval rank of captain and the rank of colonel in other services. While the rank originated in the British Royal Air Force (RAF), group captain is a rank used by the air forces of many Commonwealth and other countries that have been influenced by British military culture. It is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries
Group captain the rank until the unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968, when army-type rank titles were adopted. A Canadian group captain then became a colonel. In official French Canadian usage, a group captain's rank title was "colonel d'aviation". In the Argentine Air Force "commodoro" (commodore) is the rank in Argentine Spanish while in the Chilean Air Force, the rank in Chilean Spanish is "colonel de aviacion" or "colonel of aviation". Until 1973 it was used by the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), today the sleeve insignia is that of a full Colonel. In addition to the equivalents used in most