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Navy Creates Dedicated Rating for Submarine Chiefs of the Boat

Senior enlisted leaders on submarines move from an assigned billet to a formal rating with its own career path, and E-9s with the 8COB code convert immediately

By AXY Defense Desk ·

Navy Creates Dedicated Rating for Submarine Chiefs of the Boat

Key points

The U.S. Navy has created a formal rating for the senior enlisted leader aboard its submarines, turning a job that was once only a position on a boat into a specialty sailors can train for, advance in and build a career around. A U.S. Navy administrative message, known as a NAVADMIN, released Monday establishes the Submarine Chief of the Boat as a general rating equivalent to a command master chief. Military Times reported the change in an article published October 20, 2026.

The Chief of the Boat, usually shortened to COB, is the commanding officer's principal enlisted adviser. According to the Navy's enlisted occupational standards, the COB is responsible for issues that affect sailors' welfare, morale, job satisfaction and utilization, which means how well the Navy puts each sailor's skills to work. On a submarine, where a crew lives and works in close quarters for long stretches at sea, those issues reach into nearly every part of daily life aboard.

The Navy said the change is intended to provide a clearer career path, specialized training and advancement opportunities for submarine sailors seeking the leadership position. Those three goals are the core of the announcement. They also point to the problem the change is meant to solve: a senior job that, until now, has been reached through assignment rather than through a defined track that a sailor can plan for years in advance.

How the COB Job Worked Before

Until this change, the COB was assigned by billet. A billet is a specific position on a ship or submarine that a sailor is assigned to fill, in the same way a particular seat on a crew is reserved for one job. According to the Navy's personnel manual, the post was identified by Navy Enlisted Classification 8COB, the code the Navy used to mark the role.

A Navy Enlisted Classification, or NEC, is a secondary code attached to a sailor's record to show special training or skills beyond the main job. The code tells the people who assign sailors, and the commanders who need them, that a sailor holds a particular qualification. Because the 8COB code was attached to a position rather than to a career field, it did not give sailors a separate line of advancement the way a rating does.

The previous policy specified a normal 36-month tour. A tour is the length of time a sailor is normally assigned to a post, so the usual COB assignment lasted about three years before the sailor moved on. The policy allowed submarine sailors in paygrades E-8, E-8 selectee and E-9 to qualify for the designation. Paygrade is the pay level that marks a sailor's rank. E-8 and E-9 are the Navy's senior and master enlisted grades, and an E-8 selectee is a sailor who has been chosen for promotion to E-8 but has not yet moved up.

Selection under the previous policy involved a screening process for sailors who sought the assignment. The announcement, as reported, does not describe that process in detail, and it does not say that the old requirements will continue under the new rating. Those are gaps the Navy has pointed to its assignment instruction to fill, which is discussed below.

What a Rating Means for a Sailor's Career

A rating is the core job specialty a sailor holds in the Navy, such as electronics technician or machinist's mate. Each rating has its own training pipeline, its own advancement system and its own career map. Sailors move up within a rating through advancement exams and selection boards, and their progress is tracked on a formal record. A rating is, in short, a career track with defined steps.

The senior enlisted ranks work in a similar structure. Command master chief is the senior enlisted adviser to the commanding officer of a command, and it is an E-9 post. The Navy's announcement places the Submarine Chief of the Boat at that same level of seniority, which signals that the job is meant to be a full senior enlisted career rather than a temporary assignment.

By making the post a rating, the Navy places the COB inside that kind of structure. The reported material does not spell out the full advancement steps, the training courses or the timeline for reaching the post. Those details will have to come from the Navy's later guidance, and sailors who want to plan around them will need to wait for it.

For a sailor thinking about a long submarine career, the difference is practical. Under a billet system, reaching the top enlisted post can depend on being assigned to it at the right moment. A rating gives a sailor a route to work toward, with training and advancement that can be planned for years. Clear routes matter most to people deciding whether to stay in the service past a first enlistment, which is one reason changes to the career structure draw attention across the force.

Who Can Apply and Who Cannot

The new rating is open to active-duty, submarine-designated sailors, and all of them must be submarine warfare qualified. Submarine-designated means a sailor has been formally recognized as serving in the submarine force. Submarine warfare qualification is the certification that a sailor has completed the training needed to serve aboard a submarine and stand the watches that go with it.

The Navy expects non-nuclear submarine ratings to be the primary source of candidates. Those are ratings outside the nuclear-trained specialties, which means sailors whose main work is not in the reactor plant. Other submarine-designated personnel may still be considered, but on a case-by-case basis rather than as a default path into the rating.

Selected Reserve sailors are not eligible. The Selected Reserve is the part of the Navy Reserve whose members drill on a regular schedule and can be called to active duty. Under this announcement, reservists cannot enter the new rating, even if they serve in roles connected to submarines. That exclusion is set by the eligibility terms in the NAVADMIN as reported.

What Happens to Current Chiefs of the Boat

The Navy will immediately convert E-9 personnel who currently hold the 8COB designation to COBCM, according to the NAVADMIN. For those sailors, the change is not a future option. It is a direct conversion from the old designation to the new one, and it takes effect as soon as the message is implemented.

The conversion covers E-9s only, and the reported material does not say how sailors who hold the older designation at other paygrades will be handled. Sailors below E-9 who currently hold 8COB will likely want clarity on that point. The answer may come in follow-up Navy guidance, but the announcement itself does not state one.

What the Announcement Leaves Open

The Navy did not say how many sailors are expected to enter the new rating. Without that figure, it is hard to tell how many people will compete for the post or how quickly each submarine will have a COB trained through the new path. The number also matters for judging whether the career path the Navy describes will have enough openings to be worth pursuing.

The announcement also does not detail how all existing selection and assignment procedures will change. Instead, it directs applicants to the submarine force's senior enlisted program assignment instruction, COMSUBLANT/COMSUBPACINST 1306.2, for current application requirements and selection criteria. Instructions of this kind are issued in the names of the Atlantic and Pacific submarine force commands, and they set the practical rules that sailors and commands follow.

Sailors who relied on the old rules should check that instruction rather than assume the terms are unchanged. The 36-month tour is one example. The reported material does not say whether that tour length carries over into the new rating, and it does not say whether the screening process described under the old policy continues in the same form.

What to Watch Next

The first thing to watch is the assignment instruction the NAVADMIN points to. That document is where the application process, the selection criteria and any training requirements for the rating are expected to be set out in detail. Sailors who want to apply will need it, and so will the commands that recommend them.

The second is any follow-up message covering sailors below E-9 who hold the 8COB designation. The current announcement addresses E-9 conversions directly, so guidance on other paygrades would fill a gap that the public material leaves open.

The third is the first wave of selections and assignments. Early cases will show how the Navy applies the rules in practice and whether the career path it describes becomes real for sailors. The size of the rating is also worth tracking. Once the Navy releases a figure for how many sailors it expects to enter, readers will be able to judge how many people will compete for each boat's top enlisted post.

For now, the announcement settles what the job is called, how it is classified and who can apply. It leaves many practical questions to later guidance. Those rules will decide what a submarine career looks like for the sailors weighing one today.

Questions and answers

What is a Chief of the Boat on a Navy submarine?

The Chief of the Boat, or COB, is the commanding officer's principal enlisted adviser. The role covers issues affecting sailors' welfare, morale, job satisfaction and utilization, according to the Navy's enlisted occupational standards.

What changed with the Submarine Chief of the Boat?

A NAVADMIN released Monday establishes Submarine Chief of the Boat as a formal general rating equivalent to a command master chief. Previously the COB was an assigned billet identified by Navy Enlisted Classification 8COB.

Who can apply for the new Chief of the Boat rating?

The rating is open to active-duty, submarine-designated sailors who are submarine warfare qualified. Non-nuclear submarine ratings are expected to be the primary source of candidates, and Selected Reserve sailors are not eligible.

What happens to current E-9 Chiefs of the Boat?

The Navy will immediately convert E-9 personnel who hold the 8COB designation to COBCM, according to the NAVADMIN. The announcement does not say how sailors at other paygrades will be handled.

Topics: Submarine Chief of the Boat, U.S. Navy, NAVADMIN, Enlisted rating, Submarine force, Navy personnel policy, Senior enlisted leaders

Sources: Military Times

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