Small unit tactics

Small unit tactics is the application of US

Army military doctrine for the combat
deployment of platoons and smaller
units in a particular strategic and logistic
environment.[1][2][3] The composition of a
United States Army squad falls into three
broad categories: classical, balanced and
combined.
4th Infantry Division in Afghanistan

Classical
United States Army 'classical' squads are
composed of three elements; a
command and support element, a base
of fire element, and a maneuver element.
The command and support element
could include a squad leader, an
assistant squad leader, a medic, a
forward observer and a radio operator or
it could be limited to a squad leader. The
fire element consists of a machine
gunner and one or two personnel who act
as loaders and barrel changers for the
gun and porters for its ammunition and
ancillary components. The maneuver
element is composed of troops armed
with assault rifles, entrenching tools,
grenades and additional ammunition for
the machine gun and tasked with the role
of enabling the safe movement of the fire
element by scouting ahead and providing
a security detail.

Balanced
Balanced squads are composed of two
or three fire teams coupled with a
command and support element. The fire
teams could either be standard base of
fire elements organized around a
machine gun and protected by assault
rifle or submachine gun wielding
ammunition porters or the fire teams
could be organized as 'storm' units
composed of a handful of personnel
armed with assault rifles reinforced with
a squad automatic weapon and grenade
launchers.

Combined
The combined squad is composed of
dissimilar fire teams; an RPG team, a fire
team and a sniper team. The RPG team
consists of two personnel; one armed
with an RPG launcher and the other
porting extra RPGs and providing
protection with an assault rifle. The fire
team is composed of two personnel; one
carrying a machine gun and the other
porting its ammunition. The sniper team
consists of one or two persons, one
deploying the weapon, often a semi-
automatic designated marksman rifle as
opposed to a true sniper rifle, and the
other acting as spotter and providing
close protection.

Combat Strategy and Phases

Assault

The two major techniques of squad

assault are bounded fire and advancing
under the cover of suppressive fire of
supporting units. Bounded fire entails
having one element of the squad provide
covering fire and field obscuration while
the second element maneuvers forward
to provide covering fire that allows the
first element to leapfrog forward. This
process is repeated until the maneuver
element is in grenade range of the enemy
positions. Advancing under the cover of
supporting units requires the squad to
stealthily advance towards the enemy
position from a weakly held sector after
the enemy has been suppressed by
overwhelming fire. Once the squad has
closed with the enemy it uses grenades
and squad automatic fire to engage the
enemy. This allows sufficient disruption
of the enemy's control of their defensive
front to allow other squads to advance
unopposed. United States Marines
squads are arranged into "Buddy Pairs"
and will assault in "Buddy Rushes",
ensuring that one Marine is firing at the
enemy while the other is maneuvering.

Interim

In this phase the squad consolidates its

position by entrenchment, construction
of fortifications, creation of
passageways between structures and
forward reconnaissance of surrounding
areas. Minor chemical decontamination
will commence as seals, respirators and
masks are checked for damage. Body
armor will be examined to replace
damaged ceramic plates. Casualties will
be treated, evacuated and/or replaced.
The squad will use this period to
familiarise itself with its surroundings,
dig in to defensible positions, recharge
itself, repair any damage to itself and
prepare either for the next offensive
movement, or go on the defensive
against a counterattack.

Defensive

On the defensive, an isolated squad will

allow a small element to hold a weak and
easily evacuated position behind a
remote detonated mine, flanked by a
machine gun. As the enemy advances,
the small forward element will pull back.
When its former position is overrun the
mine will be detonated to distract the
attackers, and then the machine gun will
open fire on the attacker's flank. The
machine gun will then switch to engage
and suppress the tail of the enemy
assault as the rest of the squad
maneuvers against its dislocated and
exposed flanks, which have been pulled
forward from their defensive line to
support the head of the assault. On the
defensive, a squad with a secure means
of communication will fix the enemy into
interlocked fields of fire and call in fire
support from supporting units.
References
1. Todd South (April 11, 2018) This Mattis-
directed task force wants to overhaul the
infantry. Here’s how it might do that. (http
s://www.armytimes.com/news/your-arm
y/2018/04/11/this-mattis-directed-task-fo
rce-wants-to-overhaul-the-infantry-heres-h
ow-it-might-do-that/) Close Combat
Lethality Task Force
2. Colonel Daniel S. Roper, U.S. Army, Retired
(2018) Regaining Tactical Overmatch: The
Close Combat Lethality Task Force (http
s://www.ausa.org/sites/default/files/publi
cations/SL-18-2-Regaining-Tactical-Overm
atch-The-Close-Combat-Lethality-Task-For
ce-0.pdf)
3. Bob Scales (November 26, 2018) Mattis’s
Infantry Task Force: Righting ‘A
Generational Wrong’ (https://breakingdefe
nse.com/tag/close-combat-lethality-task-f
orce/)

Department of the Army (1992-04-22).

"Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad" (htt
p://www.globalsecurity.org/military/lib
rary/policy/army/fm/7-8/index.html) .
Field Manual Nº 7-8. Washington, DC,
USA: globalsecurity.org. Retrieved
20 July 2011.
United States Marine Corps (2011-04)
"Fire and Movement" (http://www.usna
vy.vt.edu/Marines/PLC_Junior/Fall_Se
mester/TACT3019_Intro_to_Fire&Move
ment_Student_Outline.pdf)
 How the LTTE was 'military' defeated:
A Soldier's view [1] (http://infolanka.asi
a/eelam-war/a-soldiers-view/how-the-l
tte-was-military-defeated-a-soldiers-vie
w-part-six)

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Small_unit_tactics&oldid=997920366"

This page was last edited on 2 January 2021, at

22:01 (UTC). •
Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless
otherwise noted.