Chief Warrant Officer is a military rank used by the United States Armed Forces, the Canadian Armed Forces, the Pakistan Air Force, the Israel Defense Forces, the South African National Defence Force, the Lebanese Armed Forces and, since 2012, the Singapore Armed Forces. In the United States Armed Forces Chief Warrant Officers are actual officers, not NCOs like other NATO forces.
In the Canadian Armed Forces, a chief warrant officer or CWO is the most senior non-commissioned member (NCM) rank for army and air force personnel. Its equivalent rank for navy personnel is chief petty officer 1st class (CPO1). The French language form of chief warrant officer is adjudant-chef (adjuc).
A CWO is senior to the rank of master warrant officer (MWO) and its navy equivalent of chief petty officer 2nd class (CPO2).
Cadets Canada uses the ranks of chief petty officer 1st class, chief warrant officer, and warrant officer 1st class respectively. This organization's uniforms use a similar coat of arms insignia as the Canadian Armed Forces.
The rank insignia of the CWO is a simplified version of the 1957 coat of arms of Canada, worn on both forearms of the service dress tunic; in gold metal and green enamel miniature pins on the collar of the service dress shirt and outerwear coats (Army only); on CADPAT slip-ons worn in the middle of the chest, embroidered in tan (Army) or blue (Air Force) thread; and in pearl-grey thread on blue slip-ons on both shoulders of other uniforms (Air Force only).