It’s past time to organize, describe and employ the squad and the section as different infantry sub-units.

The US Army has recently been reported to be considering reducing the size of its standard infantry squad from nine to eight or fewer. So this could be a useful time to review the nature and structure of the British-Canadian-Australian-New Zealand infantry 'section', the equivalent US Army 'squad' and the 50 percent larger USMC ‘squad’. Also more usefully a time to use the words squad and section to differentiate and employ each to mean a distinct type of infantry sub-unit.

Is there any good reason for the US Army to use the term squad to mean a 9-man infantry sub-unit composed of a squad leader and two 4-man fireteams while the USMC uses the term squad for a more capable 13-man sub-unit with a squad leader and three 4-man fireteams ? And is there any logical - as opposed to historical - reason for BCANZ armies to use the term section to mean their standard 8-man infantry sub-unit composed of two 4-man fireteams ?

A reader who considers the solution obvious could skip the next six paragraphs.

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For much of the period from the 1950s and into the 1980s, a full-strength BCANZ section had 10 men: a 2-man scout group, section commander (usually a corporal), 3-man machine gun group (led usually by a lance corporal) and 4-man rifle group (which usually included another lance-coproral). The structure of that 10-man section was oriented toward movement and especially patrolling. The leader had to be a capable NCO. Also that section often needed more lift space and weight than was available in a single utility helicopter or a single armoured personnel carrier of that era. So for those and other reasons the structure was changed to provide a smaller, evenly balanced and more easily led sub-unit. Possibly to imply historical continuity or to deflect criticism, that smaller sub-unit was also confusingly referred to as a section.

Until recently the common BCANZ rifle section had at full strength two 4-man teams each with 3 riflemen and one LMG gunner. The section was/is commanded by a junior NCO - commonly a corporal - who also leads one of the teams. The other team is led usually by another junior NCO, typically a lance-corporal. That standard 8-man rifle section is nominally capable of concurrent fire and movement. Provided suitable fire positions are available for use as bounds the 4-man rifle teams may actually alternate between fire and movement. In other circumstances one team may move or manoeuvre - continuously or in rushes - forward, backward or sideways while the other team remains comparatively static and provides suppressive and destructive fire support from an overlooking or somewhat offset position.

The current US Army rifle squad also has two 4-man rifle teams – each having three riflemen and one LMG gunner - augmented by a squad leader (usually a sergeant) to form a 9-man sub-unit. Similar to the BCANZ section that 9-man squad is nominally capable of concurrent fire and movement but with the squad leader static or moving with one or other 4-man team each of which usually has a PFC as its leader.

If the US Army wanted to continue having a separate leader then the squad might reduce to 7 with two 3-man rifle fire teams. Alternatively a 7-man squad might have two dissimilar teams as does the French Army whose infantry sub-unit has a 300m rifle team and a 600m MG team. Elsewhere some German infantry is organized in 6-man squads. Those 6-man squads may be usually employed as indivisible fire teams but some division into two 3-man fire teams seems likely. One problem with small squads is that they tend to increase the counts of parent vehicles and vehicle crews. Fuchs for one is likely to regard 6-man squads as appropriate for panzer grenadiers but inappropriate for light infantry.

Finally there is the 8-man rifle squad which AusArmy has retained in its ‘Beersheba’ reorganization. The AusArmy infantry platoon now has a 4-man HQ, three rifle squads and a 12-man Manoeuvre Support Section (MSS) organized into three 4-man support weapon teams. The whole MSS can be employed together and led by the platoon sergeant. Alternatively one or more MSS weapon teams can be assigned one each to a rifle squad to form a rifle section(s). It that latter form the 40-man ‘Beersheba’ platoon resembles the 34-man rifle platoon of the 1960s which had three 10-man sections each with its own GPMG.

The next iteration of ‘Beersheba’ is likely to adopt an organization that even better satisfies and also balances the needs of fire and movement, and those of fire or movement. Such an organization could well extend the system of fours to become four 4-man rifle teams and four 4-man weapon teams variously combined to form four 8-man squads, or for example a squad and two 12-man sections.
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Generally it would seem useful for ABCA to have a consistent and readily understood system for describing infantry sub-units. A system that clearly and usefully delineates the differences could be arranged as follows:
buddy team: 2-man team
fire team: 3-man or 4-man rifle team (w or w/o LMG) or 3-man or 4-man support weapon team (eg: one or two MG and/or RCL/grenade/other launcher)
squad: two similar or dissimilar fire teams w or w/o separate leader (6 to 9 man)
section: three fireteams w or w/o separate leader (12 or 13 men), eg: squad plus attached rifle or support weapon fireteam.