Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post
OK, so we go for a squad of 4 x 5 man fireteams - 20 men, so a Platoon is 60 or 80 men? - So why not have 6 x 5 man teams, 4 under the control the Platoon Commander and 2 under the platoon Sergeant?

This is where squad based arguments unravel, because everyone is asking the wrong question. Instead I suggest,

a.) How do I best organised 100 men (arbitrary number, but one chosen as a function of limited resources) for combat operations?

b.) Once organised, how do we best equip them to fulfil a wide range of missions and within manning and equipment budgets?
Personally I have no objections to considering a Platoon of 60 or so men, provided that it is organized into say three Sections of about 20 men, each divided into say 3 Squads of maybe 6 men, each with an LMG. But, I want to make sure that it will provide substantial, not merely minor advantages over what we have now. If it turns out to be worth the cost, do it; if not, discard the notion entirely.

When it comes to the limited resources bit, admittedly you're putting up a pretty stiff argument. I would say, however, that just as there are limits to resources, there are also tactical implications when cost and resources are the principle determining factor in force structure. The present 8/9-man Section/Squad is an example of this. It has no staying power, and losing its organic F&M capacity after taking just one or two casualties. And this despite not only having 10-11 man Sections/Squads previously (and the former not even intended for internal F&M), but there own studies, based on both wartime experience and peacetime tests, stated that not less than 11 men for the former and 12-13 men for the latter were required to carry out their tasks.

This the whole Bean-Counter problem, and certainly your propositions are the best that I've ever seen to deal with this. But I just don't see how, based upon what I've observed and done myself, and what I have learned from others and have read, how taking, for example, a more easily fundable figure of 100 men plus kit (rather than 150, let alone the monster Coys I lean towards) and then making a tactical organization out of it, necessarily leads to a viable tactical organization.

Take the Commandos for example. A common organization for a Commando in WWII, of course, was 5 or 6 60- or 70-man Troops, each of a pair of Sections in turn split into a pair of 11-man Subsections. It was light and agile, designed for hit-and-run raids, and not for sustained operations. As SF like the SAS came to demonstrate greater efficiency in the Raiding role, the Commandos were increasingly deprived of their intended Role. Towards the end of WWII, they came to be reorganized largely along the lines of conventional infantry, capable of sustained operations. The Commandos fought in Brigade formations in Amphibious and Airborne Operations in the Rhine battles.

And again, the Commandos fought organized much like their conventional kin in the Paras and the Guards in the Falklands. But there is no point to the Commandos returning to the WWII configuration, when the SAS/SBS, etc., can perform those tasks, organized on somewhat similar lines, far more efficiently in most cases. But the SF are not intended to slug it out on the ground in a sustained conventional campaign.

My point is, starting withthe principle planning assumption being that we must organize for maximum fiscal efficiency is starting off on the wrong foot. Yes, there is no option but to make the best of what resources are made available, but that does not mean stripping down sub-units and units down to the bare-bones from the start. What good is a unit or sub-unit of a given size when, for all its efficiency, it remains unable to perform its tasks, or it is only a one-shot deal because of its inability to sustain losses?

I think that your proposed 30-man Platoon is a very useful Raiding organization, but I retain doubts about its ability to go toe-to-toe with an entrenched enemy on the battlefield. It is small and quiet, easy to control, and can infiltrate in small teams to an RV close to an objective, and conduct said Raid in small teams or task-organized groupings. Very good stuff. For winning the Firefight against an entrenched enemy, though, it will need a good deal more firepower than a pair each of GPMGs, and ATGM launchers, especially when it may find itself approached or even matched in the same regard by an enemy Section. Kilcullen's Platoon organization (if I remember correctly), has each 4-man Rifle team with an LMG, in addition having a few 4-man GPMG teams. That organization can win the Firefight, and perform the Assault as well, even if its ability to sustain casualties is not quite what I would prefer. Perhaps Kilcullen's Platoon should be regarded as the minimum for an effective Platoon organization.