Officer Promotion Timescales


Hi all,

Just a question out of curiosity: How long does the average officer stay at each rank? ie: At what age can you reach certain ranks?

I just spent about an hour looking through all of the ships and their Captains/Commanders and looking at their ages. It seemed to be that most Commanders were in their 40's, however there were exceptions as some Commanders were really young, around late 30's I think. Is this just an anomaly? Or if you do really well can you expect to gain the higher ranks before you're 50/40?

Any replies would be appreciated!
2 years as a Middie, 3 as a subbie, between 4 - 8 years as a Lt, and then after that it all gets a bit interesting. The average age for promotion to Capt RN is 43ish.


Captain is a rank, captain of a ship is a title although the captain of a ship can be a Captain..simples.
Yeah that's what I meant, sorry I didn't word it well... What I meant was, was Alfred stating that the average age of promotion to a Captain is 43 or the average age of Captain of a ship?


War Hero

Just as an aside, as you are interested in age.

A couple of years ago, the CO of HMS Example was a 29 year old.


War Hero
Yeah I already know what it is, I know it's a URNU ship but at 29 yrs old you wouldn't think you were doing 'badly' on the promotion front if you were commanding that ship.
Ah, now your an expert on promotion.....:toothy10: Yes I'm sure you would be doing very well to get command of any ship.

Captain Royal Navy = rank.
'The Captain' = Commanding Officer of a ship, can be of any rank from Lt RN to Capt RN.

It would be impossible (under current rules) to be a Capt RN at 26.

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