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Lieutenant Commander (also hyphenatedlieutenant-commander and abbreviatedLt Cdr,[1]LtCdr.,[2]LCDR,[3][4] orLCdr[5]) is acommissioned officerrank in manynavies. The rank issuperior to alieutenant and subordinate to acommander. The corresponding rank in mostarmies andair forces ismajor, and in theRoyal Air Force and otherCommonwealth air forces issquadron leader. It is roughly equivalent to theCorvette Captain rank in central European countries and theCaptain 3rd rank rank in eastern European/CIS countries.
TheNATO rank code is mostly OF-3.[6]
A Lieutenant Commander is a department officer or theexecutive officer (second-in-command) on many warships and smaller shore installations, or thecommanding officer of a smaller ship/installation.[7] They are also department officers innaval aviation squadrons.
Some navies address Lieutenant Commanders by their full rank or the positions they occupy ("captain" if in command of a vessel).
In the BritishRoyal Navy,United States Navy andCommonwealth Navies however, officers are addressed by their full rank if their full name is being used, or the higher grade of the rank if the officer is being addressed or referred to in shorthand. Therefore Lieutenant Commander John Smith Royal Navy is addressed as "Commander" or "Commander Smith", and referred to as "Commander Smith".[8][9]
Famous examples of this are:
-Lieutenant Commander Lionel Crabb Royal Navy who in conversation, biopics, Admiralty correspondence and even statements in Parliament by the Prime Minister is almost invariably referred to as “Commander Crabb”.[10]
-Acting Temporary Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu RNVR, who is routinely referred to as "Commander Montagu" in historical and contemporary records, and in interviews by his colleagues onOperation Mincemeat.[11]
Lieutenants were commonly put in command of smaller vessels not warranting a commander orcaptain. Such a lieutenant was called a "lieutenant commanding" or "lieutenant commandant" in theUnited States Navy, and a "lieutenant in command", "lieutenant and commander", or "senior lieutenant" in theRoyal Navy. The USN settled on "lieutenant commander" in 1862 and made it a distinct rank. The RN followed suit in March 1914.[12]
In theRoyal Canadian Navy, the rank of lieutenant-commander (LCdr)[5] is thenaval rank equal tomajor in thearmy orair force and is the firstsenior officer rank. Lieutenant commanders are senior tolieutenants (N) and to army and air forcecaptains, and are junior tocommanders andlieutenant colonels.[6]
The insignia worn by aRoyal Navy lieutenant commander is two mediumgold braid stripes with one thin gold stripe running in between, placed upon a navy blue/black background. The top stripe has the ubiquitous loop used in all RN officer rank insignia, except for the rank of Midshipman. The RAF follows this pattern with its equivalent rank ofsquadron leader.
Having fewer officer ranks than the army, the RN previously split some of its ranks by seniority (time in rank) to provide equivalence: hence a lieutenant with fewer than eight years seniority wore two stripes, and ranked with an army captain; a lieutenant of eight years or more wore two stripes with a thinner one in between, and ranked with a major. This distinction was ostensibly abolished when the rank of lieutenant commander was introduced, although promotion to the latter rank for officers on a full career commission (FCC) was automatic following accumulation of eight years' seniority as a lieutenant. Automatic promotion officially ceased in the early 21st century and promotion is ostensibly now only awarded on merit.
Throughout much of its existence, the BritishRoyal Observer Corps (ROC) maintained a rank of observer lieutenant commander. The ROC wore aRoyal Air Force uniform and their rank insignia appeared similar to that of an RAFsquadron leader except that the stripes were shown entirely in black. Prior to the renaming, the rank had been known asobserver lieutenant (first class).
In theUnited States, the rank of lieutenant commander exists in theUnited States Navy,United States Coast Guard,United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, andNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps.
Within the U.S. Navy, lieutenant commanders are listed asjunior officers. There are two insignia used by U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant commanders. On service khakis and all working uniforms, lieutenant commanders wear a gold oak leaf collar device, similar to the ones worn bymajors in theUnited States Air Force andUnited States Army, and identical to that worn by majors in theUnited States 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 acorn for Medical Corps, crossed oak leaves forCivil Engineer Corps, United States shield for the Coast Guard, etc.) TheUniformed Services of the United States designate the rank as O-4.[13]
![Lieutenant commander (Antigua and Barbuda Coast Guard)[14]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGeneric-Navy-5.svg)
![Lieutenant commander (Irish: Lefteanant-cheannasaí) (Irish Naval Service)[21]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGeneric-Navy-(star)-O4.svg)
![Komandleitnants (Latvian Naval Forces)[23]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGeneric-Navy-6.svg)
![Komandor porucznik (Polish Navy)[31]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGeneric-Navy-11.svg)
![Locotenent-comandor (Romanian Naval Forces)[32]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aRomania-Navy-OF-3-Sleeve.svg)
![Lieutenant commander (United States Navy)[38]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aU.S._Navy_O-4_insignia.svg)
![Lieutenant commander (United States Coast Guard)[38]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aUSCG_O-4_insignia.svg)
Media related toLieutenant Commanders at Wikimedia Commons
