So lets take a look into what that means and see how it will work.
Every time one of your vessels destroys an opponent it will gain a certain amount of experience. The amount gained differs from situation to situation. A Sovereign gets much less experience by killing a Romulan Shrike then a Shrike would get from finishing off a Sovereign. Once a vessel gained enough experience it will reach the next of in total four ranks. Each rank increases the vessels Offensive, Defensive and System values. The precise bonuses per rank are different from vessel to vessel.

Rank 1

Rank 2

Officer-Rank 1

Officer-Rank 2

Once a vessel has reached the Officer-Rank it will also gain a new special upgrade unique to them. This might be a new weapon, a passive ability or a change in the behavior of its native special weapons. Of course these bonuses will be more powerful once the vessel has reached the second officer rank.

The rank will be visible for you next to friendly vessels on the game view and on the interface in the selection overview. On a side note: visibility and behavior of the health bars has changed in v3 too.





And to round this newspost up, here are some Federation Officer abilities as a small preview.

Defiant Class

• Officer-Rank 1: 
  Adds two additional Quantum Torpedo Launchers


• Officer-Rank 2: 
  The Quantum Torpedoes deal additional damage

Excelsior-II Class

• Officer-Rank 1:  Strategical Offense
  Weaponrange increased to Artillery


• Officer-Rank 2:  Strategical Offense
  Weaponrange increased to Artillery and Offensive Value increased by 2

Sovereign Class

• Officer-Rank 1:  Flagship
  Damage reduced from vessels which did not yet reach an officer rank by 16 percent


• Officer-Rank 2:  Flagship
  Damage reduced from vessels which did not yet reach an officer rank by 32 percent