There was no JCompany: the letter J was traditionally not used because in 18th- and 19th-century old-style type, the capital letters I and J looked alike, and were therefore easily confused with one another. An armor or air cavalry unit of equivalent size is known as a squadron. Battalion Battalions are tactical and administrative organizations with a limited capability to plan and conduct independent operations and are normally organic components of brigades, groups, or regiments. Without the operational Army, the institutional side has no purpose. Bear in mind that you have to fit everybodys kit in thats not just kit to fight but to live from. @Jed In my fantasy army its the best allocation of resources. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. . Certainly turret-mounted 30 mm or 40 mm cannons are preferred. These were divided up in the HQ Company with 120 men. The basic platoon structure of the Universal Battalion assumes that individual riflemen within sections will be equipped with the 5.56 mm L85A3 assault rifle (SA80) including two soldiers with 40 mm UGLs. The T/O started out as a chart-like document published by the War Department during WWII, prescribing the organic structure and equipment of units from divisional strength on down to the smallest operational entities . This would see infantry platoons switch from two calibres (5.56 mm and 7.62 mm) to a single one (6.8 mm) for rifles, machine guns and DMRs. Ser. General Creighton Abrams, from 1968 to 1972. The battalion is usually part of a regiment, group, or brigade depending on the branch of service. And it is Soldier so of course Warrior 2 is the best thing that ever happened to the Army, https://gdls-aus.com/products/ajax-ifv/ajax-infantry-fighting-vehicle/. Both were organized along similar lines. 6 Battalions of Foot Guards (armoured infantry), 6 battalions of The Light Infantry 6 Battalions of The Fusilliers (Mech infantry in Boxer) and 18 Battalions of The Rifles ? However, the usage of designated marksmen not too common. Some would argue that the 40 mm low velocity grenade is a substitute for 51 mm mortars, but maximum range is 300-400 metres not 700-800 metres. Im not sure that he can wave farewell to Warrior so easily. Every review mentions making increased use of the reserves which sets alarm bells ringing for me. Infantry Battalion Structure - Bharat Rakshak - Indian Army & Land Forces Units Infantry Battalion Structure Email Created: 12 October 2006 Written by Table of Equipment Hits: 69412 Note: Figures in Red denote the number of personnel in that particular section. I must ask though Light infantry Battalion We already have two dedicated battalions for public duties and what youre really asking is could we make do with just one? They are also Emergency Care Sergeants and can maneuver with either the Company Commander or First Sergeant. Given that kit is cheaper than people in the long run, do we need fire firepower to make up for lack of infantry mass ? and normally have subordinate units that are identified by single letters (BatteryA, CompanyA, TroopA, etc.). Company, a support unit of a Regiment There are pouches hanging off the turret cage. This is because a battalion's complement of ammunition, expendable weapons (e.g., hand grenades and disposable rocket launchers), water, rations, fuel, lubricants, replacement parts, batteries, and medical supplies normally consists of only what the battalion's soldiers and the battalion's vehicles can carry. The Department of Defense provides the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security. Anti-drones? The size of a regiment could range from 1,000 to 5,000 troops. Consider too the fact that soldiers are bigger now and less flexible in such cramped space, having bulky rigid body armour, helmets, belt kit and the ubiquitous daysack which did not factor to the same extent when Warrior was designed. The problem the Army has is when it wants people to do two jobs at once in two different places at the same time . In Platoon HQs that have 9 soldiers, the same structure would be adopted, providing an additional machine gun and designated marksman rifle. However, it differed from the light infantry platoons, which lacked a weapons squad and had 2 M240 teams in the platoon headquarters, and the ranger rifle platoon, which lacked Javelins in its weapons squad. In the UK. This is will mean better effect of weapons and better for load distribution. I basically used six as a starting point in the interests of standardization because six dismounts seems to be where heavy IFVs are heading and so a six man section seems rational unless youre happy to play musical chairs on arrival and it means you can task one section in a vehicle; presuming you can pull one guy out of the turret you max out at 28 dismounts which is the traditional platoon size. Prior they would have travelled in an M1165A1 HMMVW, although any mark of HMMVW that was available likely would have been used. This new structure eliminated the need to task-organize companies between battalions; each combined arms battalion was organically composed of the requisite companies. United States Marine Corps infantry battalions are task organized into Battalion Landing Teams (BLTs) as the ground combat element (GCE) of a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). I agree on the close relationship between regs and reserves, having been in a specialist reserve unit, I have seen it work really well. Different structures are all very well, but if we needed to deploy a substantial size force in a hurry, there is a risk that we might fail to achieve critical mass. They are not man-portable, so will usually only accompany a platoon when mounted on MIV, MRVP, MWMIK (Jackal) or other vehicles. Significantly, you would reduce the Reserve Infantry from 16 battalions to just 33 rifle coys and so lost not just 15 rifle coys but lost all the support weapons specialists and G1/4/6 troops. These included air assault, light infantry, infantry, mountain infantry, airborne, and the Rangers. It will include the Commanding Officer, 2IC, Adjutant, Operations Officer, Intelligence Officer, and Training Officer. The way my unit does it is to strip kit down to belt kit and daysack for fighting and then have gonk bag in a canoe bag and a single rocket pouch containing admin kit. A company has anywhere from a few dozen to 200 soldiers. The centerpiece of the Army's operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the infantry brigade combat team, is in danger of becoming obsolete in the face of near-peer opponents. Administratively, battalions are subdivisions of regiments. 100th Infantry Battalion. And sometimes Recruiting Team. The three commanders of the U.S. forces during the Vietnam War were: General William Westmoreland, from 1964 to 1968. Your email address will not be published. 1. Mollo, Tranquillo and Joseph Georg Mansfield The Austrian Army in 1798: the Uniform Plates of Tranquillo Mollo and Joseph George Mansfield Contemporary prints of the Austrian Army in 1798. How can Royal Navy Ship numbers be realistically increased? You say this would enhance their professionalism. Each type of brigade ( infantry or airborne infantry) has the same basic organization. The commander's staff coordinates and plans operations. Either way, this creates a requirement for 1 officer + 23 other ranks. Weapons like the 12.7 mm HMG and 40 mm high velocity grenade machine gun are primarily vehicle-mounted systems. 40mm MV is would be an excellent addition to the ammo mix in sections bit there will be some work for the SASCs to update Pams and traces so unlikely to happen. In addition, each section now has an organic 7.62 mm L7A2 GPMG gunner plus a designated marksman with the 7.62 mm L129A1 Sharpshooter rifle. With the Dutch artillery units, the equivalent of a battalion is called an afdeling (which translates to "section"). Ideally infantry should be carried in tracked IFVs or wheeled MIVs, but even light PMVs are preferable to MAN trucks and Land-Rovers that offer no protection. [4] Member nations have stipulated the different names they will use for organizations of this size. of the U.S. Army as it exists within the Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT). As I said in a previous comment, IFVs do require all THREE crew to be properly effective. No, I am asking us to attack the sacred cows of ceremonial roles to put troops in combat formations ! This size of unit would do much to increase the deployability and resilience of UK infantry battalions, especially if we could field at least 18 out of 32 battalions with some form of organic protected mobility. For historical reasons, armor and Ranger units of brigade size are called regiments, and the equivalent Special Forces units are called groups. @Captain Nemo The regular army gets guns and spare gun crews to keep them going 24/7. Its more the lack of balance than PD itself. Its important that they are volunteers as far as possible. Warrior can only carry four dismounts comfortably with full scales and definitely not more than six so manpower is neutral in armour (you could even have a two man surplus (9+9+9+7=34) who could crew the Coy HQ wagons. There are ways and means around problems though, if I recall correctly when they introduced warrior with its seven seats, they split a section into a four man squad and a three man squad and the warrior became a fire support squad, but therell have to be some very creative thinking with twenty four seats unless you shrink your platoon or fund a fifth and sixth vehicle. Tank battalions and mechanized infantry battalions no longer exist. Just realized your modular multi-role battalion has 42 people less than the current Armoured Infantry battalion establishment who are these 42 peeps and what do they do? At a higher level, each armored brigade (formerly designated 'heavy brigade') is now composed of three CABs (versus the two CABs of a former heavy brigade), one reconnaissance squadron, one artillery battalion, one brigade engineer battalion (BEB), and one brigade support battalion (BSB). * Tows 400-gallon water tank trailer (1-1/2 ton), 1 per company, or M1082 flat bed trailer, 2 per company. Fantastic comments. The current infantry rifle platoon organization is identical to the infantry, air assault, and airborne rifle platoon organizations listed in the Change 1 of FM 7-8 published in 2001. The Army currently has 13 Active Component and 20 National Guard IBCTs. none: 6-10-1 . Military What capabilities are needed? These are: The Mortar Platoon typically operates 8 or 9 mortars each with a crew of 4 plus a Mortar Fire Controller for each detachment of 2 mortars. There is also the fact that its not just about seating the troops but stowing all their personal kit and still having room for all the extra section kit and all the spare ammunition and stores and all the vehicle stores. Increased use of the reserves suggests to me that government wants to underpin our foreign adventures on the cheap and at the expense of the regular army. I dont mean to bash your idea but I do think that the current system, despite its flaws, is generally fit for purpose. I really like your idea of sharing public duties! The battalion-level system we have used since WW2, with mortars organised in a separate platoon, still seems to work well. It is important to include drivers and vehicle gunners in section ORBATs, because so often they are not specifically catered for in organisational structures. 27 Sep 44. For the light infantry company the building blocks are: Soldier>Fire Team>Squad>Platoon. Anti-Tank platoons do that but thats because in the anti-tank variant the left bench is replaced by racks for Javelin LTAs so there really is NO space for personal kit. and engineer battalions for each Infantry Division. In recent years the Royal Welsh, RAF, Royal Navy, Gurkhas and even the Royal Malay Regiment have done it. With eachJavelin vehicle requiring a driver and commander, this creates a headcount requirement of 1 officer + 31 other ranks. We recommend you cite primary sources. We can tailor our forces now for a sustained operation, such as we have done for Bosnia until the present I dont think we need to radically change the div structure just refine the battlegroup concept to reflect the modularity aspect of the force but reataining the mass of the individual capability the heavy, medium and light bring when needed. Heavy armour battalion Clambering out of the turret, the other problem I have with this idea of max capacity is that there is no flexibility for transporting additional personnel (for example: terp, MFC, A/Pnr, EOD, blokes whose wagon has been hit, casualties etc) or carrying extra stores. Company - A company was made up of three or more platoons and was commanded by a captain. Also, knowing that, whatever the role or the mission, you have 36 soldiers at your disposal is reassuring, because it the efficacy and potency of the platoon becomes a known quantity. 2) Would it work for the role of the specialised infantry battalions? Given the requirement, identify organizational structure and chain of command within the Marine Corps, per the references. 06 Vehicle requirements Or what is not getting done in the modular battalion ? Maybe reserve Infantry can protect reserve loggies delivering stores and ammo. 1. Mortar platoons with 8 or 9 x 81 mm tubes has been proven on many occasions to be sufficient. 3-battalion and can be augmented by 1 for every battalion in excess of 3. Small rationalisations made across other Support units help reduction. This means units/sub-units pinged would spend a colossal amount of time rehearsing at cost of other training and tasks. . , Specialist (OR-4), armed with 1 60mm Mortar and 1 M9/M17 Pistol, , Private First Class (OR-3), armed with 1 M4A1 Carbine, , Sergeant (OR-5), armed with 1 M4A1 Carbine. The basic building block of military capability is the infantry section. There are combat arms battalions, as well as combat support and combat service support battalions. Usually commanded by a major general, divisions are made up of three or four brigades and include 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers. 25th INFANTRY DIVISION (Occupation) During the occupation of Japan from 1945-1950, the 25th Infantry Division retained its triangular WWII organization of three infantry regiments. Officially, Warrior carries three on the left bench and four on the slightly longer right bench. Thinking about the need to operate from IFVs, Mechanised infantry vehicles (MIVs), from helicopters, and on foot, the first proposal is to standardise all Infantry Rifle Platoons around a common size that provides some degree of flexibility. C FT with SC and three riflemen, D FT with 2IC, UGL, SS, LMG (ASM/NLAWs if appropriate). A company consists of 3-4 platoons and is part of a battalion. The current active corps are I Corps at Fort Lewis, Washington; III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas; and XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Where does firepower fit into the manning equation ? C1: S: 9. I am also a big advocate of platoons having their own medic and signaller. If its not can we at least work round it by concentrating on fire and manoeuvre? A battle group consists of an infantry battalion or armoured regiment with sub-units detached from other military units acting under the command of the battalion commander. The word battalion came into the English language in the 16th century from the French language (French: bataillon meaning "battle squadron"; Italian: battaglione meaning the same thing; derived from the Vulgar Latin word battalia meaning "battle" and from the Latin word bauttere meaning "to beat" or "to strike"). In addition, each section now has an organic 7.62 mm L7A2 GPMG gunner plus a designated marksman with the 7.62 mm L129A1 Sharpshooter rifle. Four soldiers make up a team a noncommissioned officer and three junior enlisted soldiers. I think its generally accepted that reserves simply cannot be expected to attain or maintain the same level of professionalism as regular soldiers, because its not their day job, so I posit their embedding with regular formations and should the need arise, the two diluting. The structure outlined translates into an overall battalion size of 32 officers + 658 other ranks or 690 soldiers in total. Platoons divided into multiples may opt for a different weapons mix, e.g. Tactically, battalions are grouped into brigades. Strike battalion Are your Pl Comd and Pl Sgt vehicle commanders or are they additional? Headquarters Section (2Officers, 6 Enlisted, 5 Attached), , Sergeant(OR-5), armed with 1 M4A1Carbine, , First Lieutenant (OF-1), armed with 1 M4A1Carbine, , First Sergeant or Master Sergeant (OR-8), armed with 1 M4A1Carbine, , Sergeant (OR-5), armed with 1 M9/M17 Pistol. With that in mind Id suggest four sections of six, so that everyone off a given platform is on the same page, four sections could also divide neatly down the middle with its vehicles to give two patrols of twelve under a platoon sergeant and a platoon leader respectively. The infantry community has a problem. It will have 6 ambulances, each crewed by 3 personnel, although this may be increased to 8 or 9 for high intensity operations, creating a total headcount requirement of 1 medical officer + 25 other ranks. God Bless you man. British Army Infantry Battalions are a hodgepodge of different unit sizes and structures. 6 Javelins for dismounts might be enough if we had them fitted to Warrior turrets or RWS, but we dont. In January 2006, the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry was reactivated at Fort Riley under the U.S. Army's new "modularity" concept as an element of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. I like the idea of having more fire support in Platoon HQ. Over time, the regiments were turned into battalions, the reserve units amalgamated and more regular units raised and disbanded. During the American Civil War, an infantry or cavalry battalion was an ad hoc grouping of companies from the parent regiment (which had ten companies, A through K, minus J as described below), except for certain regular infantry regiments, which were formally organized into three battalions of six companies each (numbered 16 per battalion vice sequential letter designations). Total raised: $5,448,951.00 Total includes user, company, and offsite donations. And as i wrote here in this blog in an earlier article especially the UK forces should be as multi-purpose and as flexible and mobile as possible, especially on the stratetigic and operational level. At the armoured end, I believe Boxer is designed to also carry all the kit required for an 8 man section, which does not mean extra seats / space for more stores is not a bad thing with 6 dismounts which takes us right back round to mass of dismounts. Is that a firmed-up concept or is it still at the level of general discussion and possibilities? With a universal size, it is easy to see gaps and to fill them. confronting an adversary such as the Russians in eastern Europe would require heavy and medium armour with the ability to mount a mobile defence via mobility and counter mobility along with long range fires etc what would the light brigade bring to this party? In the U.S. Marine Corps, an infantry or "rifle" battalion typically consists of a headquarters and service company, three rifle, or "line", companies (designated alphabetically A through M depending upon which battalion of the parent regiment to which they are attached) and a weapons company. The proposed universal battalion of 690 gives a total of 22080 for 32 battalions, an increase of 3742. .?UF&-b4W[u&SgJ`/24$4jfbH@\t,#QG^*)W&HTSE|:=:pl9xp}u KNv In the latter case, the unit is called an eskadron, which translates roughly to "squadron". With this weapon now returned to individual sections, in lieu of the 5.56 mm L110A2 LMG, there is arguably no need for a separate machine gun platoon, especially as platoon vehicles will have a mix of 12.7 mm HMGs and 40 mm GMGs. Intermediate ( think 300 blk or 7.62 AK) type calibres optimised for under 300m for carbines and/ or section belt feds. Traditionally, most British regiments have had more than one battalion. Why did / do we need mass, as in large numbers of infantry boots on the ground ? Battle Order is for informational purposes only. The Light Infantry Company. A battalion's subordinate companies and their platoons are dependent upon the battalion headquarters for command, control, communications, and intelligence, and the battalion's service and support structure. Equally, it can be used for vehicles that have a larger carrying capacity than IFVs, e.g. So back to my original question , can firepower and manoeuvre replace infantry mass, at least for armoured infantry units for the missions they will be used for, while maximizing boots on the ground for protected mobility Battalions which would have a different primary mission set ?? They can range from a few dozen soldiers to up to 200. While the UKs Warrior previously accommodated three crew plus seven dismounts, after has been upgraded, the need to stow 40mm cased-telescoped cannon ammunition is expected to reduce dismounted section carrying capacity to six. The Rifle Battalion of October 1940 was superseded beginning in April 1942 by a new Infantry Battalion organization. SAAB has produced a lightweight version of the Carl Gustav 84 mm recoilless anti-tank weapon. A sacred cow! I would like to see the Hirtenberger 60mm mortars purchased under UOR deployed at least in the Rifle Company HQ, more for smoke and illumination rather than HE. The wagons overall capability is diminished because youre tasking a soldier to do two soldiers jobs in an incredibly stressful situation the middle of a firefight! This would inevitable change their way of fighting and therefore hinder them to be an true general purpose infantry. The thing about 36 is that it divides neatly a number of ways 4 x 9, 3 x 12, 3 x 10 + 6, 4 x 8 +4. Additionally, not everybody will volunteer. But each platoon then gains four or five extra soldiers. 07 Personnel summary. However, your suggestion of four rifle sections will require even greater manpower to maximise effect. (Please click on the image for a larger version) Mechanised units usually have an attached light aid detachment (LAD) of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) to perform field repairs on vehicles and equipment. Silly idea ? Select A Unit From the Menu to Learn More: There are a few distinct exceptions in the structure of each military service. Public duties are despised and dont help Guards recruitment really? Regimental Administration Office Each can conduct major tactical operations and sustained battlefield operations. However number of boots might make the difference for protected mobility (motorized) inf. While the US army will no doubt eventually start fielding thier new 6.8mm super calibre I think 2 rifle calibres in sections will remain wise. 1945-1950. Linked to above hopefully we could afford extra MRV-P APC, lets say Bushmaster, and JLTV to fully equip extra reserve Coys deployed to the motorized infantry. The central idea in proposing a universal battalion structure is to build it around platoons of 1 + 35 soldiers. The Table of Organisation and Equipment (TOE) is based on document from the early 80s. - light cannon, assigned to AT unit The first use of the word in English was in the 1580s. Technical Quartermasters Department Anti-tank platoons usually have 6-8 dismounted Javelin ATGM launchers. Therefore, this exercise will commence by considering how platoons and rifle sections should be organised and how this determines overall rifle company size and structure. Date. A platoon of 1 + 35 divides neatly into four sections of 9 soldiers, allowing 7 dismounts per section or your magic number of 28 dismounts total per section. This will lead to higher costs per bataillon and therefore to higher overall costs. In deployment in current year, it would be common for a Light Rifle Company to be equipped with 4 MRAPs per platoon and 2 MRAPs per headquarters section. With successive rounds of cutbacks after the war, many infantry regiments were reduced to a single battalion (others were amalgamated to form large regiments that maintained multiple battalions, e.g., the Royal Anglian Regiment). I think that keeping divisions how they are is the better system and that each of the divisions should be organised into independent battlegroups (with some of their own logistics included) that can be used to bolt onto a heavier or lighter formation as and when required or massed together such as the armored div for a major confrontation. Lynx can carry 8 dismounts and would allow us to really increase the mass of the armored infantry withot adding to vehicle numbers in any significant way. Battalion sizes vary between branches. I see that you failed to include the Adjutant Generals Regimental Administration Office Platoon with around 20 personel. So while I have experience of this, and the food ol Gimpy, I have never carted them around In the field. Interesting article on a subject I personally know little about. It usually consists of 1 officer + 27 other ranks. Encouraged by his children, Uchida began to write his memoirs when he was in his seventies . Each of the infantry regiments had, besides its twelve rifle and heavy weapons companies, a 13th (infantry howitzer) and 14th (antitank) company. A battalion in the Indian Army consists of four rifle companies. I think we need silly ideas and massive reforms, such as your ideas on simplify rank structures to fit with a much smaller army. The battalion organization allows the commander to scale his force to accept like-type additional infantry or intelligence organizations. In a trentch or a building 5.56mm belt feds are superb. (c) distributed as required when regiment is broken-up in detachments. It may indeed prove a good idea if explored and developed further but I dont understand what problem you seek to solve nor what the advantages are: it will do nothing for quality of training, Reserve professionalism and competency, morale and retention or, crucially, deployability. This question arises a fair bit with readers of WorldWar2Facts.org, so we have compiled a table to help explain what the unit or group names mean, what units made up larger WW2 army units, the rough size of the unit, and what rank of officer or NCO was normally in charge. With this in mind, the objective of this discussion is to consider what a universal battalion size ought to be. Training Wing The battalion was a standard tactical organization throughout the 20th Century, and overseas deployments were usually done with formations . The battalion is "the smallest infantry organization that can arrange for a concentration of support weapons of different kinds" (War Office training manual, 15 January 1944), and is usually grouped with other units such as armoured regiments or other infantry battalions into higher formations: brigades, divisions, corps, armies and army groups. 37mm With a smaller army limited to just 82,000 soldiers, the organisational structure and number of personnel within individual units starts to become very important. (d) 3 from auxiliary service. AUTHORISED PERSONNEL: AUTHORISED EQUIPMENT - BATTALION LEVEL: Prev Next A Carl Gustav 84mm in the Coy. The Medical Platoon (which establishes a Regimental Aid Post when deployed) will be comprised of 1 medical officer + 19 other ranks. [1] This is because the Army Reserve Infantry works to a 1 in 3 model whereby a battalion-strength Reserve unit is expected to muster one third of its strength for a deployment. They are numbered and assigned missions based on their structures. They are normally identified by ordinal numbers (1st Battalion, 2nd Squadron, etc.) Born on the island of Kauai, he moved to Honolulu to go to high school but left before he graduated to take a job at the Halekulani Hotel where he was working when he was drafted in 1941. However, two of the infantry regiments were reduced to two battalions each and their supporting artillery battalions had only two firing batteries. In Northern Ireland, infantry platoons were often divided into multiples of 12 soldiers. Company Unfortunately, it is only attached if a battalion deploys and may not train often enough with the battalion to which it is allocated to achieve the desired level of integration. However I dont think any future peer to peer (or near peer) conflict will allow us to stand up reserve units as reinforcements, we will go with what we have, they will fight. 04 Battalion HQ and HQ Company structure My idea would be here to adept and develope the russian/soviet idea of the Bronegruppa to the extreme. I dont understand why the commando (no bipod) version of the 60mm mortar would be less accurate or more difficult to get rounds on target than a 51mm ? I think that wider structures, instead of ten BCTs we should look at the French and Australians. A battalion is a military unit with 300 to 1,200 soldiers that usually consists of two to seven companies and is commanded by either a lieutenant colonel or a colonel. Instead of an ISTR platoon it there would be a mort company with 3 platoons with 120mm mortars, plus a patrol platoon combining the sniper and recon platoons, and finally a UAV company. The 100th Infantry Battalion, initially made up almost entirely of Japanese Americans from Hawai'i already in the army prior to World War II, represented the first group of Japanese Americans to see combat during World War II.