Will the Army change the size of the infantry squad?

[daftandbarmy]

Here we go again

Will the Army change the size of the infantry squad? A new study is looking at it.

The Army is conducting a study to determine whether it should change the size of its infantry squads as it adds “Next Generation” technology to the force’s elemental fighting unit.

Col. Alexis Rivera Espada, head of the Army’s Maneuver Battle Lab at Fort Benning, Georgia, referenced the “squad study” Thursday during a presentation at the National Defense Industrial Association’s virtual Armaments, Robotics and Munitions annual event. The study commenced this year and will include experimentation in force on force events next year.

The colonel called the study, directed by Army Headquarters, the first of its kind in decades.

In recent years, the Marine Corps ran its own series of infantry squad experiments, eventually shifting its size from 13, which had been in place for decades, to 15.

The 15-Marine squad adds a squad systems operator to take on the new array of small drones and coming ground robots available to the unit. The other add-on was an assistant squad leader to better manage coordinating fires and the flood of information coming to the squad.

The Army has held infantry squads in nine-soldier formations for decades, preferring to keep the company as a base of maneuver for its dismounted troops, meaning the smaller squads were simply components of that larger group.

But, in just the next two years, two key pieces of gear are headed to that smaller squad.

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2020/11/05/will-the-army-change-the-size-of-the-infantry-squad-a-new-study-is-looking-at-it/?fbclid=IwAR2konkhEnbROi8Ast2NKg5vM1BUOQdr70BIliwmuh-t9eLAjbQ0DIYowj0

 

[tomahawk6]

The squad over time has been adjusted to the threat. Since Vietnam we have seen the squad size reduced from 11-12 to 8-9. The theory being that a squad is more combat effective with large squads. Now the determining factor is the capacity of vehicle they ride in. In Vietnam it was the ability of the helicopter they were riiding.

 

[a_majoor]

The squad over time has been adjusted to the threat. Since Vietnam we have seen the squad size reduced from 11-12 to 8-9. The theory being that a squad is more combat effective with large squads. Now the determining factor is the capacity of vehicle they ride in. In Vietnam it was the ability of the helicopter they were riiding.

Also doctrine. A WWII American squad had a scout team, and assault team and a fire support team. W WWII era German squad was essentially built around an MG-42 team. If future squads have robotics or other exotica, then they will have to be adjusted and built around that as well.