Sergeant major general general appeared to create a precedence issue, in that a major outranks a lieutenant but a lieutenant general outranks a major general. This continues to cause confusion to those unfamiliar with the history of the rank, particularly in those armies using insignia similar to the British Army. The rank is sometimes used by paramilitary organizations such as militias. Sergeant major general Sergeant major general is a now mostly extinct military rank. A prominent example was Philip Skippon in the English New Model Army as organized by Oliver Cromwell. Over the course of the 17th century, the increasing professionalisation of armies
Major general major-general was reintroduced in the Portuguese Army, Air Force and National Republican Guard in 1999, replacing the former rank of brigadier in the role of brigade commander. As a rank, it had previously been used in the Army only for a brief period (from 1862 to 1864). It is equivalent to the rank of "contra-almirante" (rear-admiral) in the Portuguese Navy. In 2015, the rank of major-general was moved up one level, with the role of brigade commander being assumed by the below rank of brigadier-general. In most of the 19th and first half of the 20th century, major-general was not