User blog comment:Phiniksa/Ranks, SRIs and the Navy/@comment-26581666-20160125065856

Here's my personal ideas (quite a bit of this is based on historical navies):

Enlisted:

Seaman - Replaces Cadet, as historically most seamen were new recruits or conscripts

Able Seaman - Equivalent to Private, mainstay enlisted rank

Leading Seaman - If any rank was to go, I would personally choose this one, mainly because it's a much more modern invention than the others.

Junior Officers

Petty Officers - Pre-modern navy Petty Officers were generally a combined version of Leading Seamen and Petty Officers, so you could probably have them take on the Leading Seamen roles and take out the Leading Seamen. They were the Sergeants of historical navies.

Chief Petty Officer - Basically what Varadu said, leave them in

Warrant Officer - I wouldn't get rid of this one, but I would change the entire focus of the rank. The origin of Warrant Officers was that they were "officers", but they were made officers by their warrant from the King/Admiraltry, not a commission. They were on ships to serve as Gunners(the people in charge of the power stores and armory, not the ones who commanded the guns), Sailmakers, Blacksmiths, Pursers, Surgeons, Masters(Sort of a like a Sergeant Major of a ship)

Officers

Midshipmen - The point of a Midshipman was that he was an apprentice officer. So instead of making them graduates of the academy, I would make them still at the academy.

Acting Sub-Lieutenant - I would rename this rank to "Master's Mate" and fold it in with the current idea of a Midshipman.

Sub-Lieutenant - Again, I would rename this one to "Ensign", they generally served as Signalmen and some other minor roles.

Lieutenant - Very important, keep as is.

Lieutenant Commander - Turn it into a post, instead of a rank. Lieutenants Commander (technically should be the plural in my opinion as they were Lieutenants who were Commanders, like Attorneys General) were simply Lieutenants who commanded a ship (generally a small one, Sloops or smaller, sort of like a Patrol Boat)

Commander - Keep as is, they were a Captains X.O on battleships or commanders of a group of small ships/boats

Captain - Keep as is

Flag Ranks

Commodore - Very important rank, they were the leaders of a group of frigates or bigger.

Rear Admiral - Filled the same roll as a Commodore, could be scraped. The main difference between Commodores and Rear Admirals is that Commodores commanded their flagship directly, while Rear Admirals had a Captain under them. I would keep them.

Vice Admiral - A X.O of a fleet, keep it

Admiral - Keep it, it's important (obviously)

Grand Admiral - Same as Admiral

Posts

Command Chief Petty Officer - Can go, but I sort of like it

Fleet Commander - This one is very tricky, as in WoW Lore a Fleet Commander is another name for a Commodore (according to the Shipyard). Personally, I would keep, but rename to Admiral of the Fleet or Fleet Admiral

First Lord of the Seas - Sort of like how High Admiral is the leader of the Gilnean Navy, make the First Lord of the Seas the leader of the Stormwind Navy

SRIs

Change completely, heres how I would do it:

Enlisted - Doesn't get anything, or maybe can get a patch on their shirts.

Junior Officer - See Enlisted

Officers - Replace with epaulettes and bars on sleaves:

- - - - - - - - - Midshipman - Nothing

- - - - - - - - - Master's Mate - One Bar

- - - - - - - - - Ensign - Two Bars

- - - - - - - - - Lieutenant - Three Bars

- - - - - - - - - Lieutenant Commander - Got turned into a post, same as Lieutenant in insigniaa

- - - - - - - - - Commander - One epaulette on the left shoulder, none on the right

- - - - - - - - - Captain - Two epaulettes, one on each shoulder

Flag Officers

- - - - - - - - - Commodore - One epaulette on left shoulder, none of right, one bar

- - - - - - - - - Rear Admiral - Two epaulettes, one on each shoulder, one bar

- - - - - - - - - Vice Admiral - Two epaulettes, one on each shoulder, two bars

- - - - - - - - - Admiral - Two epaulettes, one on each shoulder, three bars

- - - - - - - - - Fleet Admiral/Admiral of the Fleet - Two epaulettes, one on each shoulder, four bars or a special insignia

- - - - - - - - -  First Lord of the Seas - Same as an Admiral, but with silver epaulettes

- - - - - - - - - Grand Admiral - Two epaulettes, one on each shoulder, five bars or a special insignia

The Air Arm

See my reply to this post