Quote Originally Posted by Tom Odom View Post
I wrote an article for Military Review (with a retired Sergeant Major of the Army and a former CSM of Ops Grp) on the subject of small units. We started at the company and went down to squad.

We argued for a larger squad built on 3's and providing a maneuver, support, and a breach element. We wanted to make the squad as much a combined arms element as we could and we also sought to make it more self-sustaining. I advocated 3 man versus buddy teams; 3s provide greater duration and depth.

My argument also looked at tests run by GEN DePuy as the 1st TRADOC commander. DePuy tested everything; in this case, he tested the various combinations of support and maneuver ; by a clear margin the best ratio of support to maneuver was 2 to 1. A balanced squad cannot do that as it is organized; it must reorganize and/or be reinforced.

You can read about DePuy's tests in Gorman's Secret of Future Victories

My article is at Military Review

Best

Tom
In support of Tom's point, when you look at the operational requirements of the missions typical to a squad, there are usually three elements there (for instance, in an attack there are operational requirements for an assault force, a suppression force, and a breach force). It seems to make sense that the types of units who will routinely have three operational requirements would have three different sections or teams.