In this paper, rank-based nonparmetric detection of composite signals in additive noise is considered. Based on signs and ranks of observations, the locally optimum detector is deived for weak-signal detection under any specified noise probability density funhction. This detector has similarities to the locally optimum detector for comjposite signals in additive noise. The asymptotic performance of this nonparametric detector is shown to be as good as that of the locally optimum detector.