The Military ranks of Serbia are the military insignia used by the current Serbian Armed Forces and historical Royal Serbian Army.
Note: Serbian River Flotilla is a brigade-level brown water naval branch of the Serbian Armed Forces, subordinated to the Serbian Army.
The rank insignia of commissioned officers.
The rank insignia of non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel.
Following the unification of the Kingdom of Serbia into Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the ranks were replaced with the military ranks of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
There were only three general ranks in Royal Serbian Army: General (from 1872), Army General (from 1900 to 1901) and Vojvoda (from 1901). There were only two types of shoulder cords: with double-headed eagle (from the coat of arms) for Vojvoda and without for all other General ranks. The different general grades were indicated by 6-pointed stars on the cuffs. Also the backing cloth for the shoulder cords was light blue for Army General (honorary rank from 1900 to 1901) and divisional generals and in a colour of service for brigadier general. During the Middle Ages, the Vojvoda was a military commander rank and a noble titule. In the Balkan Wars and World War I this title was used to designate the highest military rank in the Royal Serbian Army (equivalent of the Field Marshal in other armies). This rank was introduced by the 1901 Law on the Organization of the Army and has been awarded only during the war for "special merits of top-ranking generals". The first Vojvoda was promoted by the Great Military Decree of the Kingdom of Serbia on 20 October 1912. Only four people ever officially held that military rank: Radomir Putnik (1912), Stepa Stepanovià(1914), à ½ivojin Mià ¡ià(1914) and Petar Bojovià(1918).
The rank insignia of commissioned officers.
The rank insignia of non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel.
Ranks included generalâÂÂpukovnikâÂÂpotpukovnikâÂÂmajorâÂÂkapetan IâÂÂe klaseâÂÂkapetan IIâÂÂe klaseâÂÂporuÃÂnikâÂÂÃÂetovoÃÂaâÂÂdesetarâÂÂzastavnikâÂÂvodnikâÂÂdvajesnikâÂÂnarednikâÂÂpodnarednikâÂÂkaplarâÂÂdoboà ¡arâÂÂredov. Commanders were called komandant and aide-de-camps were aÃÂutant.
Senior ranks were the kaplar ("corporal"), fendrek (from "fähnrich"), kapetan or buljubaà ¡a ("captain"), podvojvoda and vojvoda ("warlord"), in the beginning of the First Serbian Uprising (1804âÂÂ13). The ranks were initially given from within the army until the strengthening of central power when commander-in-chief KaraÃÂorÃÂe with or without the Governing Council appointed them. At the end of the uprising, the officer ranks included kapetan, poruÃÂnik, potporuÃÂnik, praporÃÂik, vahtmajstor (or narednik, from wachtmeister), estandarfirer (or barjaktar, "standard-bearer"), unteroficir (or podnarednik) and barabanÃÂik (or doboà ¡ar, "drummer").