I have never seen anything to make me believe that chest badges are comm badges. Everything seems to be some sort of hand held comlink or a glove mounted comlink.
Having now seen the episodes - I'm going to go a little controversial and suggest that, at least for the New Republic era, two blue dots arranged vertically doesn't mean "Lieutenant." It just doesn't feel like a high enough rank for the OC of a ship that large. And if I'm being honest, I'm not 100% certain it meant "Lieutenant" in the original trilogy - off the top of my head, I can't recall any Rebel being addressed as "Lieutenant" in the movies, so our "knowledge" that it means what it means almost certainly comes from WEG assigning meaning to it in their Rebel Alliance Sourcebook.
Consider, as a counter-example, Commonwealth army rank insignia. 1 pip is 2LT, 2 pips is LT, 3 pips is CPT, and then it resets to 1 Crown is MJR, Crown + Pip is LCOL, Crown + 2 Pips is COL.
So I can imagine a setup where 1 red is 2LT/Ensign, 1 blue is 1LT/Sub-Lieutenant, 2 red is CPT/Lieutenant, 2 blue is MJR/Lieutenant-Commander, and so on up to 5 red is General/Admiral.
Of course, the only thing that can really be done to test this is to carefully go through all the movies and TV shows, note down what rank badge a character has, and what they are addressed as. Outside information such as comics, novels, Wookiepedia, etc, aren't really useful to test this to my satisfaction, especially if they post-date the WEG sourcebook. Granted, what I suspect I'd find is that the system isn't consistent.
But I do think it's legit to assume that there may have been a reset to the meanings when the Alliance became the New Republic and all the kit and organization had to start getting standardized.
Anyway, to loop back on point I'm also going to say that I don't think the NR is using the collar tabs the same way whatever military became that part of the Rebellion did, and that at this point it either means "collar tabs plus chest pips denotes rank" or "collar tabs denote some position," the most obvious being Officer Commanding of an independent vessel.
I'm very glad I'm not the only one to think about this. I suspect that for TESB John Mollo designed a rank system that worked like the US military for the Empire and Rebels where both army and navy used the same badge (Veers is a 1/2 star general, Luke is a navy commander subordinate to captain etc) . But then the sourcebooks introduced the idea that captain has the same badge regardless of denomination and we've been stuck with that ever since lol.
I remember reading in The Essential Guide to Warfare that the Rebel fleet started off so small it barely needed a traditional structure anyway and it was only when Ackbar took over and was like "right, we're doing this properly" that one began to emerge. I was optimistic that they would follow this through in canon with the idea of fighter command using army red ranks (like all in the Resistance) and naval aviators using fleet blue, especially as Wedge canonically is promoted from lieutenant to Lt.Cmdr, Cmdr, CAPT, Nien Numb is a Lt.Cmdr not a Major and the Mandalorian showed pilots wearing the navy badges with the blue flight suits alongside regular orange ones (fighter command).
But then we had that Colonel Tim Meadows wearing a blue 4-dot badge and the Captain in the first episode of Ahsoka wearing a 2-dot. Mind you, given the navy has the practice of referring to the officer in charge of a vessel as captain regardless of rank, he could still be a senior-grade Lt.
There's also the fact that we do have Lieutenants leading squadrons (Alphabet Squadron, Resistance, TLJ). This seems a bit odd, until you realise that Star Wars has consistently shown squadron leaders with the army rank of Captain, and if the naval equivalent was a Senior Lieutenant that would at least line up.
I know, I know ... this thread is about the New Republic / Rebel Alliance.I am a retired USN, LCDR and I can tell you that whatever you know about US officer ranks no matter which branch, just forget it because it does not directly apply to the SWU, at least not when we talk rebels and resistance members. Furthermore, you also have to forget anything from the old canon. Those old West End books, Video Game ranking systems, etc... appears to have been swept away. So any confusion fans have is understandable.
For the most part, I believe this ranking system for resistance members holds up for Rebels/New Republic as well. The only difference is that the resistance ranks connected the dots. It is a combo of know Army and Navy rank names intertwined and this rank system (they did a similar thing in BSG) applies to both the Army and Navy forces with the exception of nomenclatures for General and Admiral based on the branch.
View attachment 1736075
In case you can not envision it in your head.. I added a dot to represent the pips of the older badges.
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From what I have observed, the Imperials use the rank of Captain like traditional Navy (pay grade of 06 which is the same as a Colonel ins the Army) For the Rebels, New Republic, Resistance, the rank of Captain is like that of the Army (pay grade 03 which is that of a Lieutenant in the Navy).
However, the Rebels, New Republic, Resistance do use the term of Captain as a position (as you touched on above), meaning that they have command of a ship or unit but is not necessarily the rank of that person. But it is considered proper in a military unit to address a person as Captain even if not their rank. It is hard to tell in the OT what rank Han is prior to that of General because he might be getting address as Captain Solo because he is Captain of the Falcon or if he also happens to be the rank of Captain as well.
Lastly, the SWU tends to also assign ranks a lot differently than the real military. But if you go through a few posts back, you can see a real Navy LT (Capt in the Army) who is getting a command pin afloat for a unit so there is real precedence for the junior officer like the one in Ahsoka to have command of a ship. Most likely to, as a transport, it might be considered a smaller ship, and a stepping stone to higher ranks and bigger ships. But, I think the SWU throws out General ranks like Samuel L Jackson throws out F@&%S.
I have that set and I went to check it out prior to posting. I skipped it because since the set is limited on how far you can break it down, it does not attempt to list lower ranks below those that are lesser than 6 sections across. So even if it is accurate, it is a partial rank list. I really like the set though. I have no idea how accurate those rank listings are in conjunction to on screen references.
I continue to doubt that there was any standard rank system for the Rebellion. Certain cells, especially those built around defecting/rebelling military or fleet units, probably retained their previous structure, but the Rebellion as a whole? I very much doubt it.
Leia mentions his General rank to Solo after Solo accuses Leia of keeping him on Hoth longer.and maybe Rieken? (I can't recall if he's ever addressed as "General" on screen);
I agree. Example: When I was a third class petty officer, I served as a Plane Captain... I was called a Plane Captain but it did not make me a Captain.and finally "Deck Officer," which is clearly more of a position than a rank.
Anyway, even if there are Lieutenants, these ranks could be the lingering remnants of other military forces' traditions - or they could be something more reminiscent of the way ranks worked in the 17th century as the idea of a structured military was really just [re]emerging in Europe. In that case, "Admiral" would mean "person in charge of a substantial number of ships," "Captain" would mean "person in charge of a singe ship," "Commander" would mean "person in charge of a combat unit," and General would mean "person in charge of an independent force." "Lieutenant," if there are any in the Rebellion, would mean "assistant officer," which is basically what it means anyway.
In this structure, Han is addressed as "Captain" in ANH and ESB because really, all he's in charge of is the Falcon; but ROTJ he's been given command of the independent commando that's attacking the Endor bunker and gets to be a "General." Lando is also a "General" because he's in command of the starfighters at Endor, and apparently the starfighters are considered a military asset instead of a fleet one. Rieken is a "General" because he's in charge of Echo Base Hoth. These three examples show us that "General" doesn't mean "person in charge of lots of soldiers/aviators" but each of those groups is a mostly independent force. Luke is a "Commander" because he's in charge of Rogue Squadron which is a single unit but not an independent force.
I think that once the individual factions or an individual decided to join the greater entity of the Alliance they are given a rank based on role/position/skillset. Hera is a good example when she decided to join Phoenix and received the rank of Captain,
Also it should be mentioned that Rogue Squadron is not a thing in the OT. That name did not exist till Zahn came up with it in Heir to the Empire. In The Empire Strikes Back, they have Rogue Group.
Red Squadron
Also, I think it is unfair to say Han's duties are limited to that of Captain of the Falcon. After all, he is out there with Luke placing markers, and he is heads out to deal with the imperial probe droid. It seems obvious that he has other responsibilities and is accountable for more than just Falcon duties.
FYI: here is at least one rebellion Lieutenant:
Lieutenant Dicer
One of the rebellion's pilots, Lieutenant Dicer was among the first to try to set up a base on Atollon. Unfortunately for Dicer, the world was not as desolate as believed -- huge spider-like creatures called krykna lived below the surface. After the krykna attacked, all that was left of Dicer...www.starwars.com
Hera didn't "receive" the rank of Captain, Hera is addressed as Captain because she's the owner/operator of the Ghost,, just as Han is the owner/operator of the Falcon. That's something she brought with her when she joined the Rebellion, not a title the Rebels gave her.