William F. Owen:

As you know the Portuguese fought a very long and largely successful counter insurgency in their African Empire for almost two generations. Their Army was very, very poor. The Portuguese turned this poverty into a virtue. They deployed lightly armed and equipped infantry companies. These companies could foot patrol into a target area as a unit. They were not road bound. The company could actually move as a unit cross country.

These companies were very hard to interdict. Essentially they could go where ever they wanted to. The insurgents had great difficulty developing secure "liberated areas".

The French Colonial Parachute Battalions had the same concept during the Algerian war. Eventually the British followed a similar pattern during the Malaysian Emergency (See Faber Shoot to Kill).

I think it would be wise not to try and turn an Infantry Company into a combined arms task force with many different skills and a lot of equipment. On the other hand it may be wise to place it under the operational control of a Special Forces Detachment.

100 Man Foot Company for Counter Insurgency

1. Headquarters Squad with 4-man reconnaissance patrol

2. Infantry Platoon x 3

A. Platoon Headquarters: 3-men

B. Rifle Squad x 3: 9-men

Please note that there are no organic support or service personnel or vehicles. The strength of the company is its ability as a unit to move on foot at night across any type of terrain without a lot of motors and squealing tracks; and at teh same time to be easily picked up and transported great distances by aircraft or truck. I suggest that the support personnel as in the WWII Special Service Force be grouped into a separate unit. Finally such a unit would be operating besides more heavily armed and mounted companies.

Regards

Richard W