Rifleman,

Back in 2000-2001 the Battalion I was part of was tasked with this very same question you ask. The three line companies each redesigned the basic squad organization from the standard 3, 4xman teams. We had to form two 5 man teams with a squad leader (11 man squads). While this was mainly a reaction to the under manning of the battalion at the time we did get the opportunity to try different squad design.

My rifle company reset the squad to have a heavy squad and a light squad. I spent a great deal of time researching different organizations from history to find the best design I could. What I found was that basing the squad on the light machine gun or SAW was still the best approach. The design I put in place massed two SAW/LMG in the heavy or support team. The team had two assistant automatic riflemen armed with M16A2's and a team leader armed with a 203.

The other team was the scout/assault team and had a team ldr (M16A2), a grenadier (203), a designated marksman (M16A2 with ACOG), and 2 rifleman/scouts.

We tested this formation for a period of 7 months mostly on UDP to Okinawa (to include in the NTA), on Guam and Camp Fuji on mainland Japan.

The company operated mainly as a helicopter borne unit and spent most exercises as footmobile light infantry.

That said the experiment worked fairly well when we could keep our manning level up. That was a difficulty that caused our AAR to carry the load of two men and to support two SAW's. However, that aside the massed firepower and 'talking guns' capability of massed SAW's was excellent for covering the assault team as it manueverd onto objectives. The downside was that the squad would split and the potentiality of the a team becoming isolated was a reality.

-T