This post is hypothetical, in the area of what might have been decades ago. When the Infantry Drill Regulations and FM 22-5 became relegated to tradition and the putting on of spectacles for the public rather than how units deploy to fight in the field, perhaps a manual with similar drills for companies and battalions in tactical situations should have been published to fill the void. Men wouldn't have to have been in step or have done things by the numbers, but after a command they would assume formations in a certain spatial relationship to each other, not as exact as dress and cover but something like it. I imagine there could be about 20 or 30 drills for different situations.

No doubt things like this have been tried in the past, called "combat drills" or "unit SOPs." I was a Gunner myself, so during my day I was mainly concerned with quadrants and deflections.