Small unit Military organization or military organisation is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation' ...

tactics is the application of US Army

military doctrine Military doctrine is the expression of how military forces contribute to campaigns, major operations, battles, and engagements. It is a guide to action, rather than being hard and fast rules. Doctrine provides a common frame of reference across ...

for the combat deployment of platoons and smaller units in a particular

strategic Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...

and logistic environment.Bob Scales (November 26, 2018) Mattis’s Infantry Task Force: Righting ‘A Generational Wrong’
/ref> The composition of a United States Army squad falls into three broad categories: classical, balanced and combined.

Classical

United States Army 'classical'

squads In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

are composed of three elements; a command and support element, a base of fire element, and a maneuver element. The command and support element could include a squad leader, an assistant squad leader, a medic, a forward observer and a radio operator or it could be limited to a squad leader. The fire element consists of a machine gunner and one or two personnel who act as loaders and barrel changers for the gun and porters for its ammunition and ancillary components. The maneuver element is composed of troops armed with assault rifles, entrenching tools,

grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

s and additional

ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

for the machine gun and tasked with the role of enabling the safe movement of the fire element by scouting ahead and providing a security detail.

Balanced

Balanced squads are composed of two or three

fire team A fireteam or fire team is a small military sub-subunit of infantry designed to optimize "bounding overwatch" and "fire and movement" military doctrine, tactical doctrine in combat. Depending on mission requirements, a typical fireteam consist ...

s coupled with a command and support element. The fire teams could either be standard base of fire elements organized around a machine gun and protected by assault rifle or

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an autom ...

wielding ammunition porters or the fire teams could be organized as 'storm' units composed of a handful of personnel armed with assault rifles reinforced with a squad automatic weapon and

grenade launcher A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially-designed large-caliber projectile, often with an explosive, smoke or gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary grenade cartridges. The mos ...

Combined

The combined squad is composed of dissimilar fire teams; an

RPG RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...

team, a fire team and a sniper team. The RPG team consists of two personnel; one armed with an RPG launcher and the other porting extra RPGs and providing protection with an assault rifle. The fire team is composed of two personnel; one carrying a machine gun and the other porting its ammunition. The sniper team consists of one or two persons, one deploying the weapon, often a semi-automatic designated marksman rifle as opposed to a true

sniper rifle A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long-range rifle. Requirements include accuracy, reliability, mobility, concealment and optics for anti-personnel, anti-materiel and surveillance uses of the military sniper. The modern sniper rifle is a por ...

, and the other acting as spotter and providing close protection.

Combat Strategy and Phases

Assault

The two major techniques of squad assault are bounded fire and advancing under the cover of suppressive fire of supporting units. Bounded fire entails having one element of the squad provide covering fire and field obscuration while the second element maneuvers forward to provide covering fire that allows the first element to leapfrog forward. This process is repeated until the maneuver element is in grenade range of the enemy positions. Advancing under the cover of supporting units requires the squad to stealthily advance towards the enemy position from a weakly held sector after the enemy has been suppressed by overwhelming fire. Once the squad has closed with the enemy it uses grenades and squad automatic fire to engage the enemy. This allows sufficient disruption of the enemy's control of their defensive front to allow other squads to advance unopposed. United States Marines squads are arranged into "Buddy Pairs" and will assault in "Buddy Rushes", ensuring that one Marine is firing at the enemy while the other is maneuvering.

Interim

In this phase the squad consolidates its position by entrenchment, construction of fortifications, creation of passageways between structures and forward reconnaissance of surrounding areas. Minor chemical decontamination will commence as seals, respirators and masks are checked for damage.

Body armor Body armor, also known as body armour, personal armor or armour, or a suit or coat of armor, is protective clothing designed to absorb or deflect physical attacks. Historically used to protect military personnel, today it is also used by variou ...

will be examined to replace damaged

ceramic plate A ballistic plate, also known as an armour plate, is a protective armoured plate inserted into a carrier or bulletproof vest, that can be used stand-alone, or in conjunction with other armour. "Hard armour" usually denotes armour that uses ball ...

s. Casualties will be treated, evacuated and/or replaced. The squad will use this period to familiarise itself with its surroundings, dig in to defensible positions, recharge itself, repair any damage to itself and prepare either for the next offensive movement, or go on the defensive against a counterattack.

Defensive

On the defensive, an isolated squad will allow a small element to hold a weak and easily evacuated position behind a remote detonated mine, flanked by a machine gun. As the enemy advances, the small forward element will pull back. When its former position is overrun the mine will be detonated to distract the attackers, and then the machine gun will open fire on the attacker's flank. The machine gun will then switch to engage and suppress the tail of the enemy assault as the rest of the squad maneuvers against its dislocated and exposed flanks, which have been pulled forward from their defensive line to support the head of the assault. On the defensive, a squad with a secure means of communication will fix the enemy into interlocked fields of fire and call in fire support from supporting units.

References

*{{cite web, title=Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad, url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/7-8/index.html, work=Field Manual Nº 7-8, publisher=globalsecurity.org, accessdate=20 July 2011, author=Department of the Army, authorlink=United States Department of the Army, location=Washington, DC, USA, date=1992-04-22 *United States Marine Corps (2011-04
"Fire and Movement"
* How the LTTE was 'military' defeated: A Soldier's vie

Land warfare Tables of Organisation and Equipment