NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

, the officer in tactical command (OTC) is the naval officer exercising tactical command of a group of ships in a tactical formation such as a task unit, task group, or task force. Ships travelling together on a specific mission might have one of the

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...

s designated OTC. On occasion, an officer senior to the ships' captains (a senior captain, a commodore, or an admiral) will be embarked specifically to take command of the formation and exercise the function of OTC.

Purpose of the OTC

The purpose of the OTC is to provide authority and direction for actions the group is to take in the course of assigned operations and to communicate the information to higher authorities.

Limitation of authority

In port, under peaceful circumstances where there is no tactical situation, the

senior officer present afloat Senior Officer Present Afloat, usually referred to as SOPA, is a U.S. Navy term to indicate the U.S. Navy officer, with the highest ranking by rank, or number in rank, present in a harbor occupied by more than one U.S. Navy vessel. That officer is e ...

(SOPA) assumes certain roles associated with the OTC. The OTC is only empowered to direct the assigned forces for the specific purposes designated by the officer exercising operational command over the formation. The OTC may not reassign forces for another purpose.

References

{{DANFS Military ranks of NATO