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Senior Captain is a rare military rank which is used in some countries armed forces.
Army
In some armies of the world, the senior captain is a rank between a regular Captain and a Major. The rank is often only found in armies and air forces. A similar position to that of Senior Captain is the rank of Senior Colonel.
Most prominent examples of Senior Captain rank is militaries of North Korea (where the rank is known as Taewi (대위)) and also of China (between 1955 and 1965; Da Wei (大尉)). Claims that this rank was adopted from the Soviet Union's army are unfounded, as Red/Soviet Army never had it since the introduction of the rank system in 1935. It was, though, present in Imperial Russian Army, where there was a distinction between the "Kapitan" as such, and a lower rank called "Shtabs-Kapitan" (Staff-Captain), obviously a rank of German origin.
The rank of Senior Captain is rare in Western militaries, but can be found in the German military, where the rank of Stabshauptmann (Stabskapitänleutnant in the Navy) was created in 1993 for officers of the Militärfachlicher Dienst (former NCOs in specialist positions) who could not be promoted to field grade. The Belgian Armed Forces use the rank of Captain-Commandant as a standard rank.
In some navies of the world, there is the notion of a senior captain. This is sometimes called Commodore or Flotilla Captain. It is interesting to note that when similar rank existed in Imperial Russian Navy it was called not Commodore, but rather Captain-Commander. A naval senior captain is similar to the army's Senior Colonel rank.
In some merchant marines or merchant navies of the world, some ship's captains, with particular and reconized seniority in terms of true and effective ships' command at sea, they are named senior captain. The most senior senior captain is named First Senior Captain or Commodore.
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