Gotta applaud this guy for his effort. What I find frustrating is that what he is saying has been being said by many people for a great many years, yet still nothing is done.

Anyone who has studied the current set of infantry problems, knows how to solve them. All the equipment and TTP answers are out there, and have been for many years. Infantry science is mostly "doctrinal archaeology".

The fire team is the decisive unit at this stage of the war. 4-6 men are much more likely to make contact with the enemy, draw the enemy into an open fight where we can destroy them with superior weapons and training. Imagine:

• 98 fire teams per battalion vs. 36 squads per battalion
• 36 fire teams per company vs. 12 squads per company
• 9 fire teams per platoon vs. 3 squads per platoon
Historically, and doctrinally a fire team is actually 3-5. 6 men is two 3 man fire teams (or "glued" cells).

36 fire teams just breaks the span of control, so does 9, so some intermediate command level is needed. Lots of research in this area. Platoons are not military inventions. They are products of human nature.

However if you flexibly task organise platoons as 3-6 fire teams, or use sub task 2-3 teams into sections, you are getting to what the Australians, Brits and Israelis do in practice. It works. This also loves a lot of weight issues as well.

... I think we may have discussed this all before somewhere...