Air Chief Marshal (
Air Chf Mshl or
ACM) is a senior
air officer rank in the
Royal Air Force (RAF)
[1] as well as in the
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and in the air forces of many
Commonwealth nations. In the RAF, it is the rank held by the current
Chief of the Air Staff and the Commander-in-Chief of
Air Command. Officers in the rank of Air Chief Marshal typically hold appointments such as the air force or armed forces commander in those nations which have significant military capability. An Air Chief Marshal may be described generically as an "Air Marshal".
Air Chief Marshal is equivalent to a 4 star rank and has a NATO ranking code of OF-9. An Air Chief Marshal is equivalent to an Admiral in the Royal Navy and a General in the British Army or Royal Marines.
The rank of Air Chief Marshal is immediately senior to the rank of Air Marshal but subordinate to Marshal of the Royal Air Force (or other national equivalent). Although no RAF officer has been promoted to Marshal of the Royal Air Force since the British defence cuts of the 1990s, British Air Chief Marshals are not the most senior officers in the RAF as several retired officers continue to retain the RAF's highest rank. Equally, in the Indian Air Force, the honorary promotion of Arjan Singh to Marshal of the Indian Air Force in 2002 resulted in Indian Air Chief Marshals no longer being the most senior IAF officers.
Prior to the adoption of RAF-specific rank titles in 1919, it was suggested that the RAF might use the Royal Navy's officer ranks, with the word "Air" inserted before the naval rank title. For example, the rank that later became Air Chief Marshal would have been Air Admiral. The Admiralty objected to any use of their rank titles, including this modified form, and so an alternative proposal was put forward Air Officer ranks would be based on the term "Ardian", which was derived from a combination of the Gaelic words for "chief" (ard) and "bird" (eun), with the unmodified word "Ardian" being used specifically for the equivalent to full Admiral and General. However, Air Chief Marshal was preferred and was adopted on 1 August 1919. The rank was first used on 1 April 1922.
