User blog comment:Bovell/Lots of new Battlefield 3 details via Twitter, DreamHack festival, PSM3, and interview/@comment-219.90.224.88-20110625080754/@comment-1439572-20110625193351

See BF2142, that has 43 (44) ranks and 40 unlock points that are distributed on ranks from 1 to 40 (and the new players start on level 0), and the last 3 levels have unique requirements like the 4-star general from BF2.