RANK & REGIMENT BADGES

A regiment is a military unit, composed of variable numbers of Artillery batteries or battalions, commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel or Colonel or, as in the case of the modern British Army where colonels more often serve as staff officers rather than field commanders, a Lieutenant Colonel. A regiment can be broken into two distinct categories, one being an administrative unit which is responsible for non-operational management of battalions (such as human resources, training and strategic reserve), while the other being a deployable combat arm varying from a battalion to a brigade sized formation, usually with organic supply and support. Depending on the nation, military branch, mission, and organization, a modern combat regiment resembles a brigade, in that both range in size from a few hundred to 5,000 soldiers (3 to 7 standard battalions). Generally, regiments and brigades are grouped as divisions. The modern regiment's size varies in number, scope and administrative role from country to country (and might not exist in some military forces) and sometimes even within the military of the same nations.

RANK

Military rank is a system of hierarchical relationships in armed forces or civil institutions organized along military lines. Usually, uniforms denote the bearer's rank by particular insignia affixed to the uniforms. Ranking systems have been known for most of military history to be advantageous for military operations, in particular with regards to logistics, command, and coordination; as time continued and military operations became larger and more complex, military ranks increased and ranking systems themselves became more complex.

Within modern armed forces, the use of ranks is almost universal. Communist states have sometimes abolished rank (e.g., the Soviet Russian Red Army 1918–1935, the Chinese People's Liberation Army 1965–1988, and the Albanian Army 1966–1991, only to re-establish them after encountering operational difficulties of command and control.