First of all, let me just introduce myself since this is my first post. The reason that I joined this forum is that I found that many people here were discussing some of the same ideas I had been kicking around for a few years, down to individual pieces of equipment. In fact, that's how I found this in the first place. I was searching the web for anything and everything on the QLB06 (again) and noticed that this site was coming up, which it had not when I had originally been searching on it a couple of years ago.

Anyway, I've been putting together a hypothetical small unit modern TO&E for a few years now, and it's been evolving as my ideas do. It started off as a 13-man infantry squad with all 5.56 weapons and tons of attachments at the platoon level, gaining more and more attachments as you went up the chain. At that configuration, my infantry battalions were quickly taking on the look of a panzer division. I didn't realize this until I actually tried to stuff the unit into vehicles and found that I was hitting triple digits before I even started adding support and logistics vehicles. So, I started over.

Well, I won't bore you with all the iterations I went through, so I'll just post images of where the TO&Es currently stand with brief descriptions and will try my best to answer any criticisms or comments that anyone might have with them.

Infantry Tables of Organization and Equipment

Infantry Company TO&E
This shows the infantry company down to the fireteams that make up squads and supporting weapons teams.

Infantry Battalion TO&E
This is the full battalion TO&E. You can see, much of it doesn't look too earth-shattering, it's a basic triangular setup, but when you see the actual teams that compose the unit, you should see that it's not as conventional.

Infantry Team Composition

I'll admit, there's some gold-plating here. This isn't a TO&E for the Zimbabwean defence forces. This is aimed a bit more at a more typical Western nation for what it's able to spend on its units. Then again, I'm not buying Javelins, G36s, WA2000s, and XM307s, so it isn't a Star Wars unit, either.

I've got two fireteams of four men each for an eight man squad size. This was determined almost entirely by available personnel carriers. I wasn't interested in the super-expensive USMC EFVs, nor did I want to split my squad up between two vehicles. That was both for cost reasons and for cohesive leadership in combat.

For an example of how such a unit would break down into carrier vehicles, here's the TO&Es of that infantry unit in my Motorized Infantry Battalions.

Motorized Infantry Company TO&E

Motorized Infantry Battalion TO&E

...and on the other end of the scale, here's the same basic infantry group mounted in the heaviest infantry combat vehicles in my hypothetical military.

Heavy Mechanized Infantry Company TO&E

Heavy Mechanized Infantry Battalion TO&E

The Namer IFVs that they would be mounted in would be armed with the 40mm CTWS gun and SPIKE LR ATGMs on the Rafael's Samson RCWS turret. That might seem to be pretty heavy armament for infantry support, but--to be honest--it's done as a cost-saving measure. The SPIKEs and such aren't so much to protect the poor infantry from the big bad tanks, they're more a matter of protecting your investment. If you roll onto the battlefield with the big ol' Namer, barreling through artillery barrages and HMG fire to go into a town, the enemy is going to quickly catch on that they need something a bit heavier to deal with you. The RCWS is as much to deal with enemy tanks, IFVs, and ATGMs as it is enemy infantry. That being said, my IFVs are designed to support the infantry they carry, even after they've been dropped off. That's why my mechanized battalions dispense with the battalion-level ATGM teams. When every IFV has them, they're superfluous. It's also cost-saving, because you don't need as many MBTs in your army to escort your infantry into an area that might have two or three T-72s lurking in it.

That being said, I understand and value the role of APCs as opposed to IFVs, too. Where's the line? Well, there's an element of gray area, but for the most part, if the unit is "motorized" then their vehicles are primarily "battle taxis" and shouldn't be hanging out in the front lines most of the time. The infantry are expected to fight a primarily dismounted battle, only occasionally supported by the carrier vehicles (such as for AA or AT support). In the case of "mechanized" units, however, while still expected to fight primarily dismounted, the unit should still be expected to be able to fight "buttoned up" in certain situations. The main difference is that IFVs shouldn't be an uncommon sight on the battlefield supporting dismounted infantry in the case of a mechanized unit as opposed to a motorized unit.

That's enough for one post. I'll add more in subsequent posts. I have infantry battalion and company TO&Es for units equipped with CV90, PARS wheeled vehicles, Marine units, and Airborne units all based around this basic setup if anyone is interested in those, as well.

Logan Hartke