| abstract
| - In 1973, warrant officers reappeared in the Royal Navy, but these appointments followed the Army model, with the new warrant officers being ratings rather than officers. They were initially known as Fleet Chief Petty Officers (FCPOs), but were renamed Warrant Officers in the 1980s. They always ranked with Warrant Officers Class I in the British Army and Royal Marines and with Warrant Officers in the Royal Air Force. In April 2004, the RN renamed the top rate Warrant Officer Class 1 (WO1) and created the new rate of Warrant Officer Class 2 (WO2) immediately below it, to replace the appointment of Charge Chief Petty Officer. The latter was a senior Chief Petty Officer, but not a substantive rank in its own right. Only those who held the specific appointment of Charge Chief Artificer (a CCPO in a skilled technical trade) gained partial recognition as NATO OR-8 equivalent, as with WO2s. In the Fleet Air Arm, the Charge Chief Artificer was commonly referred to as the Senior Maintenance Rating (SMR) but continued to wear the traditional badges of the CPO which made it difficult to distinguish his seniority from the others on a Squadron or ship. With the advent of the WO2 the SMR is now referred to as the Warrant Officer Engineering on most Naval Squadrons. Royal Navy warrant rates are thus now the same as those in the Army and Royal Marines, and wear the same rank insignia. Like RM WO2s (but unlike Army WO2s), all RN WO2s wear the crown-in-wreath variation of the rank insignia. In 2005, the Royal Navy introduced the appointment of Executive Warrant Officer (EWO) equivalent to that of the US Navy's Command Master Chief Petty Officer (CMCPO). The position of EWO is potentially filled by an established WO1 however significant numbers of 'first appointment' WO1s have taken up these posts. This fact is at odds with the relative comparison with other military forces and their "senior" cadres. The appointment as EWO on a non-capital ship will automatically mean that the incumbent is the senior non-commissioned Rank of the ship as there are no other WO1s borne in the ship's company. This is not the case on ships such as aircraft carriers where up to nine WO1s are borne during non-Operational deployments. Equally, the same situation applies to RN Dockyards, shore based establishments and Royal Naval Air Stations where the majority of WO1s are borne. Unlike its US Navy and Canadian Forces counterparts, the Royal Navy EWO does not wear a different or modified rate badge to that of a normal WO1. Every Royal Navy establishment and ship has an EWO.
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