Lieutenant commander

Most Commonwealth and other navies address lieutenant commanders by their full rank or the positions they occupy ("captain" if in command of a vessel). The United States Navy, however, addresses officers by their full rank or the higher grade of the rank. For example, oral communications in formal and informal situations, a lieutenant (junior grade) is abbreviated as "lieutenant," and a lieutenant commander is abbreviated as "commander."[7]

Lieutenants were commonly put in command of smaller vessels not warranting a commander or captain. Such a lieutenant was called a "lieutenant commanding" or "lieutenant commandant" in the United States Navy, and a "lieutenant in command," "lieutenant and commander," or "senior lieutenant" in the Royal Navy. The USN settled on "lieutenant commander" in 1862 and made it a distinct rank. The RN followed suit in March 1914.[8]

Royal Canadian Navy

In the Royal Canadian Navy, the rank is the naval rank equal to major in the army or air force and is the first senior officer rank. Lieutenant commanders are senior to lieutenants (N) and to army and air force captains, and are junior to commanders and lieutenant colonels.[5]

There are two insignia used by USN and USCG lieutenant commanders. On service khakis and all working uniforms, lieutenant commanders wear a gold oak leaf collar device, similar to the ones worn by majors in the USAF and Army, and identical to that worn by majors in the Marine Corps. In all dress uniforms, they wear sleeve braid or shoulder boards bearing a single gold quarter-inch stripe between two gold half-inch strips (nominal size). Above or inboard of the stripes, they wear their speciality insignia (i.e., a star for officers of the line, single oak leaf for medical with silver acord for Medical Corps, crossed oak leaves for Civil Engineer Corps, United States shield for Coast Guard, etc.) The U.S. Navy designates the rank as O-4.[9]

Pakistani lieutenant commander's insignia.

This rank is also used in the Pakistan Navy.[10]

• 
  Philippine Navy Lieutenant commander's sleeve insignia
• 
  Philippine Navy Lieutenant commander's shoulder insignia

The Lieutenant Commander rank is also used by both the Philippine Navy and Philippine Coast Guard.

Irish Navy Insignia

The rank of lieutenant commander is also used in the Irish Naval Service, having a similar implication to the RN rank. The majority of vessel commanders in the Irish Naval Service hold the rank of lieutenant commander, with a commander being a senior, shore-based position.

A French capitaine de corvette maneuvering.

The rank corresponding to lieutenant commander in the German Navy, Italian Navy, Argentine Navy, Brazilian Navy, French Navy, Spanish Navy and most other French and Spanish-speaking countries is corvette captain. The corresponding rank in the Estonian and Portuguese navies is captain lieutenant. In the Russian Navy lieutenant commander is "captain of the third rank" (капитан 3-го ранга), and in the Polish Navy it is komandor podporucznik.[5] In the Finnish Navy the equivalent rank is komentajakapteeni, "commander captain"; the rank insignia of komentajakapteeni is three stripes of equal width. The insignia of kapteeniluutnantti, the rank immediately below the former, is one thin stripe between two wider ones, which could cause some confusion among the naval personnel of other nations. In Swedish the rank is called Örlogskapten, in Danish Orlogskaptajn and in Norwegian Orlogskaptein.