Squad
In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and U.S. doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section", while U.S. Army doctrine further defines a squad as a "small military unit typically containing two or more fire teams. It typically contains
a dozen Soldiers or less." In the Australian, British and Canadian Armed Forces the equivalent of a squad is a section.
The Canadian Forces Manual of Drill and Ceremonial defines a squad as "a small military formation of less than platoon size which is adopted to teach drill movements. ".
A squad can also be an ad hoc group of soldiers assigned to a task, for example, a firing squad.
Organization
NATO military symbol
in Chapter 2 of Army Doctrine Publication No. 3-90 provides the following definitions for army echelons:- a fire team is a small military unit typically containing four or fewer Soldiers; two or three fire teams are usually grouped into a squad or section
- a crew is a small military unit that consists of all personnel operating a particular system
- a squad is a small military unit typically containing two or more fire teams; in some cases, the crew of a system may also be designated as a squad
- a section is a tactical unit of the Army and Marine Corps smaller than a platoon and larger than a squad
| Echelon | Team / Crew | Squad | Section |
| Symbol | Ø | ● | ●● |
In practice, the meaning of these symbols depends on the NATO member country. For example
- Table 2-3 in U.S. Army Field Manual No. 1-02.2 and U.S. designations in Annex B to APP-06 contain the note that Common English language definition also applies to symbol ●, “a small group engaged in a common effort or occupation”
- The Military English Guide v. 1.4, published by Swedish Defence University, makes no distinction between a section and a squad, designating them with the symbol ●●; a fire team is designated by the symbol ●
| Denmark | ● | Gruppe |
| Italy | ● | Squadra |
| Portugal | ● | Esquadra |
| Slovakia | ● | Družstvo |
| Turkey | ● | Manga |
| United Kingdom | ● | Section |
| United States | ● | Squad |
| Spain | ● | Escuadra |
| Spain | ●● | Pelotón |
| Albania | ●● | Skuadër |
| Bulgaria | ●● | Otdelenie |
| Canada | ●● | Section |
| Croatia | ●● | Odred |
| Czechia | ●● | Družstvo |
| Estonia | ●● | Jagu |
| France | ●● | Groupe |
| Germany | ●● | Gruppe |
| Hungary | ●● | Raj |
| Latvia | ●● | Komanda |
| Lithuania | ●● | Skyrius |
| Luxembourg | ●● | Groupe |
| Norway | ●● | Gruppe |
| Poland | ●● | Drużyna |
United States
United States Army
Historically, a "squad" in the US Army was a sub-unit of a section, consisting of from as few as two soldiers to as many as 9–10 soldiers and was originally used primarily for drill and administrative purposes. The smallest tactical sub-unit being the section, which was also known as a half-platoon.Depending upon the time period, the squad "leader" could be a sergeant, a corporal, a lance corporal, a private first class . or even a "senior" private.
In 1891, the US Army officially defined a rifle "squad" as consisting of "seven privates and one corporal." The US Army employed the eight-man rifle squad through WWI and until the late 1930s under the Square Division organizational plan, in which sergeants continued to lead sections consisting of two squads.
Under the Triangular Division organization plan in 1939 rifle squads were no longer organized into sections. Instead, the squads were reorganized into a 12-man unit of three elements, or teams, Able, Baker, and Charlie, reporting directly to the platoon commander, assisted by a sergeant assigned as the "assistant to platoon commander" The squad leader was still only a corporal but the squad was also assigned a PFC as the assistant to the squad leader. This soldier could serve as either the squad leader's messenger to the platoon commander or could be used to relay orders to other squad elements, as needed. While not a noncommissioned officer the PFC was an experienced soldier, as prior to WWII the majority of enlisted men remained privates for the entire term of their enlistment since promotion opportunity was scarce. However, the obvious command weakness of so large a squad under one NCO rapidly became obvious in light of the pre-war mobilization and was corrected in 1940 when a second NCO was added to the squad.
This adjustment raised the squad leader to a sergeant and the assistant squad leader to a corporal. The "platoon leader" now became a staff sergeant,. This squad organization included two men serving as “scout,” who along with the squad leader, formed the security element, designated as “Able.” The second element was a three-man Browning Automatic Rifle team consisting of an automatic rifleman, an assistant automatic rifleman and an ammunition bearer. This element formed the “base of fire” and was designated as “Baker.” Lastly, there were five riflemen and the assistant squad leader, who formed the “maneuver element”, designated as “Charlie.”
In 1942, the Army had a massive restructuring of its Tables of Organization & Equipment and increased the rank of the squad leader and assistant squad leader to staff sergeant and sergeant, respectively. The BAR man and the senior rifleman of the Charlie element became corporals and de facto team leaders, even though not officially designated as such.
After WWII, in 1948, the Army decided to "downsize” the rifle squad to a nine-man organization, as post-war analysis had shown that the 12-man squad was too large and unwieldy in combat. The squad leader was again called a sergeant The two scouts of the Able element were eliminated with the idea that all of the riflemen should be able to perform the scouting duties and would therefore all share in the associated inherent risk of that position. The Baker element's ammunition bearer was also eliminated, leaving the two-man BAR team as the base of fire, supervised by the assistant squad leader, but remaining as a grade 4, since the rank of sergeant was then eliminated. The five riflemen of the “Charlie” team, now led by the squad leader, remained as the maneuver element.
Also, in 1948, the rank title of the platoon sergeant changed from technical sergeant to sergeant first class and the rank title of first sergeant was again eliminated, being retained only as an occupational title for the senior NCO of a company. In 1951 the pay grades were reversed, with master sergeant becoming E-7 and sergeant first class becoming E-6, so that the squad leader became a sergeant and the assistant squad leader, a corporal.
In the 1956 the Army began reorganizing into its "Pentomic” plan under the ROCID TO&Es. The rifle squad was reorganized into an eleven-man organization with a sergeant as squad leader and two five-man fire teams. Each fire team consisted of a corporal team leader, an automatic rifleman, an assistant automatic rifleman, a grenadier, and a scout-rifleman. The assistant squad leader position was eliminated, with the senior fire team leader now filling this role as needed.
In 1958, with the addition of the E-8 and E-9 pay grades, the ranks of the squad and fire team leaders changed again, now to staff sergeant and sergeant, respectively. The 1958 restructuring restored the traditional sergeant and staff sergeant rank insignia of three chevrons and three chevrons over an inverted arc, respectively.
Under the ROAD structure in 1963, the rifle squad was reduced to a ten-man organization. This iteration of the rifle squad retained the two fire teams but eliminated the two scouts, instead providing the squad leader with one extra rifleman, who could be used to reinforce either fire team or assist the squad leader as required. An exception was in mechanized infantry units, where an additional rifleman was assigned as the driver of the squad's M113 armored personnel carrier.
Currently, US Army rifle squads consist of nine soldiers, organized under a squad leader into two four-man fire teams. The squad leader is a staff sergeant and the two fire team leaders are sergeants. Mechanized infantry and Stryker infantry units are equipped with M2A3 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and M1126 Stryker infantry carrier vehicles, respectively. Unlike the ROAD era mechanized infantry units, none of the vehicle crewman are counted as part of the nine-man rifle squad transported by the vehicles. The term squad is also used in infantry crew-served weapons sections, military police, and combat engineer units. Cavalry scout squads consist of six men divided into two teams while infantry scout squads consist of eight men divided into two three-man teams plus a team leader and assistant team leader.